Round 5 VS Seatoun AFC, Macalister Park, 30 April

Write-up by Dec

Elite 1 - 1 Seatoun

After a fantastic win last week we returned to McAlister park where we had destroyed Wainui the previous week and we now had a full squad. What could stop us? The league fu(king leaders could.

Another cracking day meant some pale freaks still needed sunscreen and the pitch was bone dry. The warm up passing drills were showing trails of dust wherever the ball was kissing the surface. Some shooting drills warmed the crossbar up which came in handy later. Our warm up showed we were ready to pass like Barcelona and take 60 shots in the game...em….yeah….em

Anyway, we didn’t start fantastically well but after about 3 minutes Ross cut the ball across to Clem who somehow managed the fire wide when he was in an acre(4046.85642 square metres) of space. It was however Ross’s fault for not shouting “Time!”.

Seatoun got into the game and started to dominate possession and created a few good chances including hitting the crossbar twice quickly in succession. We just couldn’t get our game together, struggling with our passing and not making many tackles. Greg sorted this out by clattering one of their midfielders with one of his trademark tackles. Dave lined up the wall. Their midfielder stepped up and stroked it around the wall. 1-0 Seatoun. Lots of funny looks directed towards the wall but it looked like it went around it. I’m pretty sure Dave got a fine for it.

We didn’t really create anything from open play having lots of throw ins and corners which were poor (I’ve changed this adjective 16 times). From one of the corners however we seemed destined to score from about a yard but just couldnt manage to scramble it over and the chance was gone.

Half time came and the general feeling was that the performance hadnt been great but we were still well in the game.

It didn’t inspire us and the first 20 minutes of the second-half was even worse than what had gone before.  

Suddenly the game just opened up and it became stretched. Clem and Ross started getting on the ball a bit more in the final third but the final ball just seemed to let us down and we nearly got punished.

First their best player turned quickly from about 30 yards and pinged it. It seemed destined to go over Dave into the roof of the net but Dave leapt like a salmon and got his fingertips on it and it clanged off the bar. Then the same guy went through 1-on-1 with Dave from a long ball. IN oceans of space there was only going to be one result. He tried to jink by Dave but Dave read it and leapt perfectly to his right onto the ball killing it.

A minute later the ball came into Ross at the edge of the box. He tried to turn but took a terrible touch which turned into a fantastic through ball for Dec who took 2 quick touches before side-footing it into the far corner off the post.

Only a couple of minutes remained. Both teams seemed happy enough with a draw and Ross get poleaxed for not accepting this.

Points:
THis was a struggle after a pretty poor performance on a poor surface. Defence did ok. Midfield didn’t get into game and forwards struggled but were feeding off scraps

2 - Roger. He hasn’t been mentioned in report but he did well defensively using his pace to cover. His distribution was good and you always knew what he was planning on doing. If only he could throw the ball...

1 - Dave - 2 cracking saves

1 - Damo - high-viz jacket - hard as nails - typical performance

1 - Stevo - Solid when not wandering

1 - CJ - Did well covering for Stevo when he wandered

Haha the whole defence got points. I think thats about right when we didn’t really pass, tackle, or create anything.


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