23rd June 2007 - Round 10: Scotch vs PAC

A1: Scotch 3 - 2 PAC B1: Scotch 3 - 1 PAC A1 Summary Well done boys!!! Awesome to get another win finally, its been coming and is well deserved!!! Its great to be on the opposite side to a 3-2 score hey!! :o) The game was defnitely decided in the first half, with scotch holding most of the meaningful possession in the forward half, with Fergie and Baard looking dangerous from the kickoff. We had a different looking line-up due to missing players for different reasons, mainly uni exams and suspensions, with Rhino going to right back and Eirik to left back to sure up the defense, where both their long ball skills and great touch were the difference a lot of the time. The opener came about 10minutes in from a stinging left foot strike from the top of the box that took a deflection into the bottom right corner from Maxie, following a blocked shot from both Baard and Fergie immediately prior that were both on target. Very soon after the score was 2-0 when Baard ran onto a free kick from the halfway line and neatly tucked the ball across the keeper on his left foot after a neat first touch. The third came about 30 minutes in when a good run up the left from Max had him cut the ball back to Baard at the top of the box, who claimed his second by hammering the ball past the keeper into the bottom right corner. 3-0! The whole first half was very good football generally, looking very strong at the back and bringing the ball out of the back with some structured possession and nice long balls. The second half was a different story, with Scotch seemingly going to sleep for the bulk of the half. It was a far cry from the quality of Scotch play in the first half, with PAC definitely having the bulk of the half and nearly snatching a point. Both their goals came within 10 minutes of each other and were both from the penalty spot, one for obstruction and the other a very unlucky handball. All in all a job well done though, and its now time to really astart catching up some points on the others! Thanks very much to the new boys that have come out, we really appreciate it, as we will need all the numbers we can because of people still missing due to exams etc, and also most of the Norwegian contingent going home for a few weeks back to warm and sunny Scandanavia! We'll miss you!! Hurry back!! :o) 3 votes: Baard Kristiansen 2 votes: Eirik Sandvik 1 vote: Jordan Byron B1 Summary Well well well!!!! About time!!!! :o) Well done lads, first win on the board for the year, and a very convinving one at that!! Very well deserved for continuing to improve every week and to keep fighting over the past few games when things havn't gone our way. Well done Notable mentions need to go to Andy Dean and Quent for marshalling the defense in a very good manner, and to Jassa and Josh for playing probably your best games for the year yet from fulll back. Jassa you need to teach the rest of us how to tackle so effectively! :o) Quinny had a blinder in the middle of the park setting up lots of the attacking moves and being involved in most things, with Dayne and Harald being the difference in the first half up fron with their skill, Dayne taking two goals and Harald could have had as many if things went a little different. Well done to Chrissy for snagging a nice left foot volley after a great run from Harald for the third. A mention also needs to go to Dave in goals for pulling out a couple of top drawer saves, especially in the second half when PAC were starting to put on more pressure. Thankyou so much for the boys that filled in to play when you weren't expecting it; Dayne, Eirik and Chris. Shows what sort of team we are to help each other out :o) Thats the first of a few more now fellas!!!! 3 votes: Joel Quinn 2 votes: Dayne McClure-Thomas 1 vote: Jassa Amir-Lang

16th June 2007 - Round 9: Scotch vs Sacred Heart

A1: Scotch 2 - 3 Sacred Heart B1: Scotch 2 - 6 Sacred Heart A1 SUMMARY Another dissapointing day result wise for the Scotch boys who just can't take a trick at the moment, as I feel we definitely deserved more from the game. We made a couple of line-up changes today with Stig and Havar beginning in the back four, and Mitris and Dannyboy starting up front to try and exploit Sacred Hearts lack of pace at the back. Dietmar returned back in goals for us, and Eirik was missing due to uni exam commitments. Things got off to a great start when with only 5 minutes gone, a through ball played by birthday-boi Johnny found Mitris at the top of the box, who then bravely slid in to knock the ball past the keeper as he was charging out. Nice goal mate! 1-0! With a start like that we then should have consolidated and controlled the game, however about 10 minutes later we went to sleep three times inside our defensive box and allowed easy balls to be played in from the left (Paps' fault!!) and conceded 3 goals in 10 minutes, 2 from headers and one from a tame shot that wasn't closed down from the penalty spot. 3-1 down just like that! Our formation obviously wasn't working so we needed to make some changes for the second half. Dan went back into defence as we needed a little more pace at the back to help cover, and Paul and Jordan were bought on to play as a double centre-forward pairing, that I thought worked well. It will be very good when they're both 100% fit. All in all we played the better soccer in the second half, and had several good shooting chances, especially from around the box, but struggled to make the keeper work. Our goal came about 20 minutes into the second half, when a great cross from Fabs found captain John at the back post who headed strongly past the keepers feet from half a yard!! (it was probably several yards but we can't give Johnny a big head!) The birthday boy scores and we were back in it. 3-2. Unfortunately the score stayed that way but we had the majority of the attacking play for the final 30 minutes. Geordie and Mitris played very well all day out wide and wereboth dangerous putting balls in and running at players. We look so much better when we use these two guys quickly and get balls into the box. Johnny marshalled the midfield well all day and had a series of great free kicks from distance we unfortunately couldn't get on the end of. In the end we again are still improving weekly, and our posession and attacking play and confidence is certainly on the up very quickly. it is still our inability to keep clean sheets and defend strongly and hold our formation when we need to that is our downfall. Still plenty of time to work on that though!! Thanks again to those that came out to watch on not the warmest day ever, and on an afternoon that seemed like we needed some lights on the pitch! We will start getting some wins on the board!! 3 votes: Brendan Connelly 2 votes: Nick Mitris 1 vote: John McQueen B1 SUMMARY What do we need to do to get a win!?!? Well, maybe not concede as many goals for a start!! :o) haha The first half was quite a good performance really, with Dayne making his return after breaking some ribs several weeks ago! Our first goal came from Will who went for a long range shot (or cross?? we'll say a shot!!) that was deflected into the back of the net from a Sacred Heart defender. This was in a 25 minute period of the first half where Scotch had nearly all possession and should have made it count on the score board a little more. In the second half, similar to the A's match, there was a 20minute period where the defensive concentration was lost and Sacred Heart put several past us a little too easily. Andy Pandy tried to restore some fight with a good shot from about 15 yards out theat went into the top right corner. This was definitely one of the games we really thought we could win, but it unfortunately didn't turn out that way. A big positive is that we scored a couple times in a match. 3 votes: Dayne McClure-Thomas 2 votes: Will Rogers 1 vote: Harald

11th June 2007 - CSL Cup Round 2: Scotch A1 vs Mercedes B1

Scotch A1 3 - 4 Mercedes B1 Firstly let me apologise for the length of time it has taken to get the blog organised and these reports up this week. Also sorry they're VERY short... I'll be back on it next week!!! Just ran out of a bit of time this week. To put it simply I guess this was a match that had a bit of everything!! Incliding immense dissapointment from the Scotchie boys by the final whistle! Mercedes went 2-0 up within 30 minutes through a cross and a forward run that were both poorly defended by the scotch midfield and defense. Atleast it finally woke us up though! It was suprising we actually got some game time up to this point and throughout the match in the midst of the referee's whislt going off non-stop to penalise fouls that we would normally be considered a fair, hard faught challenge on the ball from both teams... very annoying! And was handing out yellow cards like they were mcDonalds vouchers. Well.... handed out all yellow cards except one! yes, our MACHO captain Johnny got sent off in the 39th minute for a tackle that looked nothing more than slightly awkward! Down to 10 men. 2 minutes later Paps was brought down in the box (yes brought down... not a dive!!) and then slotted it away to make it 2-1. (And let me remind everyone who reads the blog comments that it was Paps who scored 1st out of him, Geordie and Johnny. Sorry John!) Scotch opened up strongly in the 2nd half and Jordan found himself the scorer of the second following a good run, where he then shot, the ball hitting the keeper, rebounding back onto Jordan then back off the post and into the net! Gold! 2-2 and the game was on. Mercedes went 3-2 up soon after from a poorly defended corner, but then James Catton stood up with a great header to the keepers top right from a cross of our own! 3-3 with 5 minutes remaining! Mercedes pretty much then went down the end a couple of minutes after the re-start and scored their 4th. It was tough going with 10 men but I thought Scotch did a great job holding possession, especially in the second half and the last 20 minutes mostly. It was dissapointing that we leaked a few goals from some poor positional defending, especially after we have been imporving defensively so much. Havar and Catton off of the bench gave us a lot of help aswell when they came on. Thanks to everyone that came out to watch and support us, it was VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!! Thankyou also especially to Rory Rogers for all of the awesome photoes you have been taking, they're brilliant! Sincere thanks :o) 3 votes: Dan Adams 2 votes: Eirk Sandvik 1 vote: Nick Ferguson

9th June 2007 - Round 8: Scotch vs Immanuel

A1: Scotch 0 - 0 Immanuel B1: Scotch 0 - 2 Immanuel A1 SUMMARY Overall quite an even game possession wise , with Scotch probably having the bulk of scoring chances, especially in the last 20 minutes where we continued to bombard the Immanuel goal time after time! If only Chris or Eirik could have finished from 5 yards each!! haha Those damn defenders and posts that get in your way on the line hey!! 3 votes: Nick Ferguson 2 votes: Eirik Sandvik 1 vote: Dan Adams B1 SUMMARY What can I say?? When you get a penalty given against us for a supposed tackle that no-one saw, not even the opposition players, you know it's not going to be your day!! Overall it was another valiant effort, but we continue to not be able to finish off good moves with a goal when it counts. The story of the year!! The performances continue to improve rapidly though, so much better is still to come I'm sure. Thakyou to Alastair's mate Matty Lynagh who came out and played a blinder in his first soccer match in 5 years after concentrating on AFL footy. 3 votes: Matt Lynagh 2 votes: Havar Hauger 1 vote: Jassa Amir-Lang

2nd June 2007 - Round 7: Uni White vs Scotch

A1: Scotch 0 - 1 Uni White B1: Scotch 1 - 3 Uni White Firstly a big thankyou to everyone that turned out for the Players and Partners night at the Ed last night, it was a great night and was awesome to get 40 of us there. Great kangaroo Johnny!! I think best dressed has to go to Chris and his 1920's mafia trench coat, I was looking over my shoulder all night making sure he wasn't about to pull a gun out, or that he wasn't flashing someone!! Everyone looked great, well apart from Geordie and his white belt, and I thought it was an excellent chance to get to know each other better and get the social side to our team moving on the up aswell. Thanks to all the girls that came... sorry if a lot of the talk was on football!!! We will organise another night and something a little different in around 6 weeks or so. Any ideas for a good night??? A1 SUMMARY Overall it was a very dissapointing day score wise, because we definitely deserved something from the match and certainly had the majority of scoring chances, with Fergie having a couple of narrow misses, Eirik hitting the post twice (should have done better!!! haha), Paps missing a couple he should have done better with and Mitris and Geordie putting on lots of pressure in the box from out wide. The last 20 minutes especially was all scotch pressure and we were unlucky not to get some sort of result. It was a close fought match for the entirity and played in tough but good spirits, on a pitch I'm glad we don't have as a home ground now as its half mud! Pleasing aspects are that we are looking much tighter at the back than in earlier rounds, and we are beginning to play much better through the midfield and wings. All we need is a natural centre forward that can play every game!! Dustie!!?? Baard!!?? :o) Overall everyone played very well, including Paul and Joel who came off of the bench and gave us a lot of momentum going forward and allowed us to make a couple of formation changes. It was hard to pick votes as everyione was quite even, especially considering the conditions, but here's the top 3 due to their dominance of their respective positions on the day. 3 votes: Nick Ferguson 2 votes: Brendan Connelly 1 vote: John McQueen B1 SUMMARY Well we are getting closer!! And what could have been hey!? Thanks to a great kick out from Dave that ran onto our latest Norwegian recruit Lars, who controlled the ball very well, ran with it then slotted it into the back of the onion bag to the keepers top left corner, we were 1-0 up within 20 minutes!! Unfortunately Uni White scored three times after that and deserved the win, but we are still improving every week, and when we can finally get a settled line-up we may see some results. Playing much better though!! We also welcome into the side, aswell as Lars, another old-collegian Alex Greville. 3 votes: Havar Hauger 2 votes: Lars Tolpinrud 1 vote: Andy Dean