WELL that didn’t go to plan. For all of the positive feeling ahead of Saturday’s opening game at Farsley Celtic, we walked straight into a trap and got caught napping.

Having looked reasonably solid defensively during the pre-season considering some of the opposition we faced, we were well and truly done on Saturday at Farsley’s ridiculously named Citadel ground. By the time we had gotten a grip of the conditions and the way the hosts were making the most of them, the damage had been done and the game was gone.

Fortunately, this was game one of 42 so there is no reason to panic just yet. We all know what this season is about and as such there is a degree of freedom for Alun and the lads to make mistakes. Hopefully, there won’t be too many displays as naive and as generous in our defending (or lack of) than what we saw on Saturday.

Turning up at the ground about half an hour before kick-off, two things leapt out at me. First was the sheer number of Darlo fans who had made the relatively short trip to the outskirts of Leeds. Secondly, that pitch. Wow!

I’d be embarrassed if my front lawn was that long, never mind turning it out for football to be played on it. To be fair to Alun, he refused to blame the pitch for the performance, but I will stand up in the defence of our players to a certain extent and say football at National League North level should not be played on a surface of that standard.

The long grass managed to hide the numerous ruts which became apparent when the ball was passed along the ground. Think about some of the worst council pitches turned out for Sunday morning football and that’s probably the level we were presented with.

Two teams were playing on the pitch but it became clear after a while one of them knew exactly how to use the conditions and the other didn’t. Whether Farsley prepared the pitch specifically like that, who knows, but it seemed to suit the home side’s approach to a tee.

Farsley were far from a long ball side but they were clever in their approach, playing the ball into space rather the to a man. They played the percentages perfectly. On the other hand, we tried to play the intricate football we have seen during pre-season. Sadly, this was not the place for that.

It wasn’t until the second half that pragmatism overtook dogmatism and we started to play balls over the top of the defence to be run on to which seemed to place the home side under a fair amount of pressure.

Despite the result, there were some positives. I thought Will Hatfield was instrumental in a lot of what we did. He was everywhere. Once we can get David Atkinson sat in behind him, I fancy Hatfield will become a very important player for us.

I also thought Adam Campbell showed enough to suggest he is going to be a real handful for most teams in this division. His goal was excellent and I thought in the second half in particular he was really productive. He’s not going to be a static focal point up front, instead he moved across the front line looking for a few yards of free space that he could exploit.

Farsley will cause most teams plenty of problems at their place if they are allowed to leave their pitch resembling a cow field. Our defending was disappointing, but I’d like to think Saturday will have refocused a few minds defensively.

If we learn from those mistakes, great. Hopefully, on a more accommodating pitch on Wednesday, we can look a bit more like the side that impressed most during pre-season.