Round 5 - Vs Seatoun, Melrose Park, 2 May

Elite 1 - Seatoun 2
Write-up by Ganes



Another sunny, bleary eyed morning started for the Elite and only one thing was certain.  I was not driving to the game.  With a quick shower, a cup of tea and eggs with ham on toast I was practically sober… Thankfully Decs had kindly offered to pick me up (after I text him an hour before the game), cheers mate.  In an inspired effort Decs got us to the game on time - a rarity for me and an irony for most others considering they dribbled (yea football pun…) in late.  Apparently Newtown park and Melrose park come up as the same place on the map…  But none the less we eventually arrived and acknowledged Ganesy’s fine form at putting up nets.  Truly amazing it was…

We mingled like cats in some form of pre-game warm up with forwards connecting with crosses and backs chasing balls in a passing circle.  I gladly took part in the latter which was helpful considering the first 10 minutes of the game I also ran in circles chasing God only knows to no avail.  Anyhow, kickoff came around and I had depleted myself of some noxious fumes to relish Seatoun’s ability to kick the ball deep into our half.  Greg lead the backs well with the flanks recovering the ball nicely to settle the Elite into a passing game, moving the ball to the forwards.  Some nice work along the wings soon found Horton Hears a Who with a one on one opportunity, unfortunately he didn’t hear the goalie coming who surprised us all by swiftly rushing out from the line and shutting Horton down.  Several further opportunities came through CJ, Tom and an amazing strike from Disco Stu, who dropped the ball on the crossbar like a song from last night’s session but we just couldn’t find the net.

Pressure from Seatoun found the Elite struggling with set plays from the corners.  After letting a couple of lads get away from us, the ball shot out, hit a man’s knee and came flying back in the 6 yard box to find a Seatoun player’s head and the back of net.  We should have been tighter and they were lucky, but either way Seatoun took the lead in what I feel was against the run of play, although it was still a close game with a few tensions coming through from both sides.

Second half saw more pressure from Seatoun and few more corners coming our way.  Again we looked vulnerable in our defensive position and there were a few close calls but we managed to hold out.  A few plays came off as we passed it around but the Elite struggled to find the back of the net.  To be fair Seatoun’s goalie did a great job and kept his side together with a lot of banter from the rear.  No idea what was being said for the most part, in fact it often sounded like random words strung together, which only left the crazy old man on side and his often contradictory commentary for my now spinning head.  With the hangover kicking in I thought more than once about curling into a ball on the sideline for a nap.  At some point in this thought process I saw a ball stray into the middle of our half and the only man taller than me curve what can only be described as an amazing shot around Dave.  It was quite frankly unstoppable and Dave had already (or in the future, my timeline is blurred) done a sensational save.

The Elites’ heads dropped for a bit after the second goal, but low and behold we showed our strength, coming back with a solid passing play coming up trumps.  The ball came up the right hand wing with a perfect line ball through the box, placed nicely into the back of the net by fox in the box CJ.  I think that’s what happened anyway, I could be wrong… The sky was basically different colour that day in my world.  I did see some stuff though.  Couple of nice turns from Arch, Scottie blocking a few plays, T-Pain hitting the line hard, Decs running all day in his last game before taking a massive hit from behind and Damo our hard man in defence telling Decs to suck it up.  What a finish to the season, hopefully the flight goes alright Ginger Ninja.

What can I say to finish, we tried to step it up but our heads played against our hearts and nothing seemed to come right in the end.  I certainly don’t feel like Seatoun were the better side but they took their opportunities where we failed to capitalise.  I’m already looking forward to our next game, hell I’ll even turn up sober.

 
MVP Points
3 Points to Greg for holding the backline together and giving us structure.
2 Points to Damo for yet another strong defensive game.
1 Point to Decs for his tireless running and setting up several plays.

 
Piece out hombres.