11th August 2007 - Round 17: Scotch v Sacred Heart

A1: Scotch 2 - 1 Sacred Heart B1: Scotch 1 - 0 Sacred Heart A1 Summary Well well well, another win on the trot for the Scotchie boys hey!! In a good rivalry that has always been close faught both through the A2's for previous years and the A1's this year, the Scotch and Sacred Heart derby was again a close faught encounter, with Scotch coming out on top this time! Baard made his return into the team this week up front and played well considering his less than perfect knee, with Patty, Jordan and Clop all out from last week with injury. The last month has seen us hit hard again with injury, now totalling 14 boys! Thanks to Chris again for DOMINATING in both games again, and for those that are playing out of position and doing extra workload with such a thin squad. Anyway, the game got off to an even start, with possession shared and chances sparce early on a pitch that was finally not muddy!! Mitris scored the first about 20minutes into the first half following a wonderful long diagonal ball from Fergie from the left, that found Mitris about 22 yards out on a slight angle. He took a touch then hit the ball very sweetly on the half volley low and hard to the keepers left, who was beaten with the pace from distance and had the ball skid in below his arms. Great strike mate! 10 minutes later following a good period of pressure from scotch from out wide with Max and Mitris, Sacred Heart caught us on the break and played the ball sweetly down the centre then out to the left around the back of our defence which they are very good at as part of thier game plan, then finished the move with a sweet strike across Dietmar into the bottom far corner. 1-1. It stayed like that until half time, after Dietmar had pulled off a couple of great saves again from a short distance, and both Sacred Heart and Scotch missing a couple of easier chances they normally may score but put over the bar, but with Sacred Heart genreally having the best of the final 20 minutes with Scotch looking unorganised at times which was very frustrating. The 2nd half began the same as the first with even posession and a physically strong game from both teams, with a couple of yellow cards being shown. We came out playing a lot better in the 2nd half following a formation change with paul going up front, and getting Max and Mitris into the game a lot more, with Paps and Fergie now having more space in the middle to try control the game from. Fabs came on for Mitris about 20 minutes into the half to add some extra run out wide and did well. The back four looked much stronger and more stable in the 2nd half and were back to their more dominant selves. Our 2nd goal came about 10 minutes from time following a quick throuw from Geordie to Paps, who played a long ball to Paul down the middle, who ended up finishing very smartly from the left side of the goals with the outside of his right foot from close range on a tight angle following a nice little one-two with Baard. 2-1!!! The goal came following about 10 minutes of strong Sacred heart pressure where we held out well and stayed disciplined, with Scotch having several close chances before that from both open play and a few free kicks we should have done better with. Overall it was an even game and one we should be estatic to get a result from considering it puts us very close to Sacred heart and Uni White now with a game in hand and several games coming up we should get results from. Well done for the fighting in the 2nd half and for the attitude and work rate change shown by everyone in the 2nd half. Another generally very solid performance shown by the back four starting most of the good plays going forward and for Chris especially with some effective forward runs and some very important hard challenges at crucial times of the game, a disciplined running effort from Mitris, Max and Fabs out wide with some great balls in throughout the 2nd half especially that forms the crux of our dangerous plays, Fergie again being hard working and creative in the middle of the park, with Baard and Paul creating chances up front with some grat running off of the ball and instinctive plays. Well done to Paul for the hard work throughout the game changeing positions and coming up with the winner!! 3 votes: Chris Rogers 2 votes: Paul Cadman 1 vote: Brendan Connelly B1 Summary Two in a row fellas!!! Moving up the table now! Well done and most thoroughly deserved. In a generally convincing performance where we should have definitely put away many more chances especially in the opening 30 imnutes (no names mentioned Mr Nathan Pana!!!! haha :o) against a Sacred Heart team that was significantly undermanned with several new faces on the pitch. The final few weeks have been improving very well for us with a more confident team, especially now we are beginning to put away more goals. This is also considering today we again had several key players missing with injury, but with the crux of the team over the last few weeks still being there. The goal came about half way through the 2nd half from a penalty that was thumped away high into the net from the confident frenchman Mr Fabian!! Never looked like missing! Games of note go to Joshie and Quent especially for controlling the back line with authority and some good touches throughout the game, to Dayne for his creativity up front, Fabs for his dominance on the left, Chris for his dominance in the middle and for playing two games, and to Stewie for his classic shirt front of the opposition while still being in possession of the ball!!! :o) 3 votes: Fabian Moison 2 votes: Dayne McClure-Thomas 1 vote: Josh Millard