14th July 2007 - Round 13: Scotch vs Rostrevor

A1: Scotch 3 - 2 Rostrevor B1: Scotch 0 - 11 Rostrevor A1 Summary Yeeeehoooooooooooooo!!! Well done fellas!!!! Thoroughly deserved win with our recent form! The game was played at Rostrevor's ground who probably have the best pitch in the league at the moment. It was always going to be a very tough game and in all fairness a game we were not expected to get points from. However, we have been continuing to improve rapidly and we got some rewards for this today. We changed our line-up to a 5-4-1, because although we have been beginning to score more goals we have conceded far too many, so we brought Johnny in from right back to play as a sweeper, and it worked very well. The game started quite evenly with both teams having equal share of the ball, with Scotch having the first few chances with Paps and Fergie having a couple of shots from distance that didn't worry the keeper. Surprisingly Rostrevor for the bulk of the half looked quite slow and poor in possession. Due to playing only Fergie and Paps in the middle, most of our play came out of defence from the full backs to the wide midfielders which is a little different for us, but something we have been working towards. A lot of this was started by good awareness and throwing from Dietmar in goals. We had several excellent passages of play like this, with some exceptional touches between Geordie or Max out wide, with Jordan up front. Some great one-two's from Jordan had both Max and Geordie open down the wings looking very dangerous in the first half, both having a couple of shots and some great crosses we should have made more from. Jordan's work rate up front as the lone striker for the entire game was exceptional, offering every time we needed him too and working his diagonal runs much better. All you need is a couple more goals now!! The breakthrough came about 25 minutes into the first half when Fergie (yes again!!!) had one of his trademark runs and shot from about 30 yards (maybe 50 yards even!!?? :o) on his right. He hit the shot very sweetly and the ball flew into the back of the onion bag over the top of the keeper with some trademark Fergie Ferg swerve and dip. Another blinder mate!! Within 10 minutes after this, we got a big stroke of luck (that I feel we deserved because we have been under the pump so much this year and were controlling the game at this point). Our re-incarnated strapping centre-back (to his annoyance still :o) Chrissy Rogers stepped up to try and beat Fergie with a audaciously strike (otherwise known as a clearance) from inside his own half, that took a slight deflection (passed back to the keeper by a defender!!!) that wrong-footed the keeper who watched the ball bounce over his head once again!!! Nice work Chrissa!!!! I'll put that one down as a goal for you! :o) So 2-0 at half time. The majority of the second half was dominated by Rostrevor who were pushing for a result and playing the way we expected them to in the first half. They were putting lots of pressure on us from out wide especially and had several very good chances on top of the two goals they pulled back on around the 60 and 75 minute mark from two crosses to make it 2-2. We struggled for most of the 2nd half to hold meaningful possession, but did however have several effective breaks and counter attacks as the game opened up considerably with Rostrevor throwing lots of numbers forward, that we could have done more with. Paul was changed for Mitris at left back to add a little more pace to our defence to counter a couple of changes Rostrevor made at half time, and Dayne came on into the centre of the park and replaced Fergie who was suffering still from illness. Our third goal came in the last couple minutes of the game from a quick counter attack out of defence with a ball that found Dayne just forward of the centre circle, who fought very hard to fend off a couple of challenges and somehow get a ball out square to Paps who did everything he could to stumble over the ball and leave it behind him, before taking it forward and slotting it along the ground with the outside of his foot around the keeper who was rushing out off of his line. GOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3-2!!!!!!!!!!!! A great effort all round boys, a result well deserved as we continue to improve week by week. Very pleasing aspects of the game were the way we stayed disciplined defensively, with a line-up that again has boys playing out of position. Several notable mentions need to be made: Firstly to Dietmar who kept us in the game yet again with a myriad of awesome saves and body blocks, especially in the 2nd half when we were under the pump. Thanks mate!! Chris and Quent in the centre of defence did their job all day very effectively by stopping most dangerous turns by the Rostrevor big-men up front. Thanks guys, its a very unselfish position and I know you don't like it Chris!! :o) All of our full backs throughout the day Patty, Paul and Mitris were great defensively with much improved zonal work (that finally is beginning to work a little better!!) and setting up of the plays. Johnny, I thought you had a fantastic game at sweeper, not just with distributing the ball from the back, but mainly with your defensive cover and "one percenters" covering behind the back four all game and with your instructional talk that is very important. Geordie and Max both has brilliant attacking games in the first half and tough defensive games in the 2nd half. We can see the difference when we play wide like we did in the 1st half and get the ball to these two guys as soon as possible. Geordie I reckon it was your best game this year for the club. Well done boys!!! Got a bye this week, then some must win games to continue moving up the table!!! ......... The Scotchie boys are jumping!!!!!......... I struggled to narrow the votes down to 3 people, so following is what I thought fairest: 3 votes: Brendan "Geordie" Connelly 2 votes: John McQueen 2 votes: Dietmar Keovec 1 vote: Jordan Byron B1 Summary Bad luck boys!! Unfortunately we were never in the game today and were outplayed by a better and far more experienced opposition. Try to all learn something from the game, especially the need for midfielders to drop back quicker to help the defence, and how the defence need to close players a LOT quicker to nullify shots!! Again, continue to keep our heads up, we are definitely playing HEAPS better than early in the season, and we have several games after the bye against teams that we should get a lot closer to now we have improved. Thankyou for all the enthusiasm and mateship that continues considering we have been hammered a few times! 3 votes: Will Rogers 2 votes: Josh Millard 1 vote: Alastair Rodgers