Season's Over That's it... the season's over. And with the A's taking out 2nd spot in both the league and the cup, it goes down as the most successful season yet for the Scotch OC Soccer Club. Thanks go the the Arkaba, who sponsored us for the season, Paps and Munch, for organised the 2 teams week in and week out, and all the family, girlfriends and spectators who came out to support us. We'll see you all (and hopefully some of your friends) next year, Dan

Round 17 Scotch vs Uni White Saturday 30th August 2008 A Grade Scotch 2-1 Uni White It was a game that we needed to win, and with the hope that Uni Black could knock off the Mercedes boys to take the title down to the final day of the season. We did our bit but unfortunately Mercedes were too good on the day for Uni Black, wrapping up the title with a game to spare. Congratulations! In our game we dominated the first half, and again could have easily added another couple to our talley to have the game out of reach by half time. This was something that we later very nearly regretted!! Dunsy snared our first goal about 15 minutes in following relentless pressure and a couple of dangerous set pieces that ultimately lead to Dunsy lashing a THUNDERBOLT aka "trickle" off of his left into the bottom corner. CRACKER!!! :o) Not too bad to get 7 goals so far between our two centre backs!! Dunsy's stunner was closely followed by some great play by Matty and Chris down the left, that had Chris cross in perfectly to let Rooney volley in from 10 yards. Great goal!! Matty and Maxie were both running havoc on the wings with great supply and link work again from Rooney, with our midfield and defence definitely controlling their direct opponents. Whatever was said at half time about continuing to show the intensity and pressure certainly went in one ear and out the other!!! The second half was a different story to the first. The possession was definitely quite even, but Uni White created more chances than us, and we almost gave away the game comically, conceding two stupid penalties within 10 minutes. The first was tucked away very nicely by their inform striker followed by a "I never miss a penalty boys". Unfortunately this came round to bite him on the ass 10 minutes later as he blazed over the top to leave the score at 2-1, and to leave us very relieved. We deserved the result with the overall run of the game for sure, but compliments to Uni White for showing the fight they did. Another tough match between the two teams. B Grade Scotch 0 -2 Uni White Another game that we got nothing out of that we maybe should have considering the strength of our starting 11. Catton and Paul were looking strong and dangerous up front when they got the supply, with Chan and Dain looking very creative from the centre of the park when they weren't being over-run physically by much bigger opponents. A couple of silly defensive errors not being able to clear our lines properly lead to both goals, but definitely something we can learn from. Overall a solid effort apart from the couple of mistakes. Next season we will strive to keep a stable squad for the most part of the season to allow much more sociality and consistency throughout the group.

Round 16 Scotch vs Pembroke Saturday 23rd August 2008 A Grade Scotch 4 - 2 Pembroke Well again we kept to the tune of conceding a couple but at least scoring more!! After a very disappointing performance last week where we were only a shadow of our normal intensity and game play, it was pleasing to have such a dominating performance against a team that started the day equal on points. The first half was a cagey affair with both sides changing blows mostly in the midfield, with only a couple of uninspiring chances falling to both teams. We were definitely getting on top by the end of the half and Pembroke looked glad when the whistle blew. We carried this intensity and momentum into the 2nd half and started with a blaze of glory with two goals in the opening 15 minutes. Both went to Chrissa from midfield, the first a delicate cip into the top right corner from 10 yards, and the second a clinical and powerful strike across the keeper. Both were from great interchange play and from hard running from Chrissa to make position. Soon after this we fell asleep at the back post and conceded a clever header that looped over Gazza in goals from a long ball in. Welly then got our next two, both from wonderful through balls (especially the 2nd from Matty!!) on fast counter attacks that had him out pace two defenders and put it across the keeper clinically both times!! Nice to have you back in the team mate! Over all a toughly fought match for both teams, but we made the most clean cut chances and the our dominating defensive and midfield pressure finally wore through Pembroke in the 2nd half. Now all we need is to win against Uni White this week and have Uni Black to us a HUGE FAVOUR!!!! and knock off Mercedes to bring the league down to the final match of the season!! C'mon Uni Black!!!!!! :o) B Grade Scotch 0 -6 Pembroke The olde "20 minute curse" came back to haunt us again today, where for the majority of the game we were 1-0 down, until 5 goals in a 20 minute 2nd half patch obviously destroyed our chances!!!! Again very consistent performers were Baby James Catton, Quento and Paulie, but as a team we need to continue working on our communication and organisation especially. In the end though a very dominating performance by Pembroke, especially in the 2nd half, and a very good lesson for us on how to make the most of goal chances and goal pressure, as in the 1st half we had 3 definite goal chances that if we snagged on of them it may well have been a very different story!!

Round 15 Scotch vs Unley Saturday 16th August 2008 A Grade Scotch 2 - 3 Unley In what was our most important game of the season so far, we were unfortunately very flat and considerably outplayed for the majority of the game. A win would have put us 6 pts above Unley and put them out of the title race, however the loss unfortunately puts us even on points and lower down the table on goals. The first half saw Unley attack the game with incredible intensity and had us looking unorganised and flustered for atleast the first 30 minutes, especially through our midfield. Again our boggy pitch made it difficult to play continuous posessional football for both teams, but ironically aided Unley in their 1st goal as the ball skidded awkwardly past two of our defenders into the path of the Unley forward who to his credit finished very neatly. It took until the last five seconds of the half for us to have a real threat, that luckily had Rooney finishing brilliantly lobbing the keeper from 20 yards following a fortuitous long ball from Johnny. 1-1 at the break. The 2nd half had us atleast looking more competitive and threatening, controlling probably 25minutes of the half and putting some pressure on the Unley defense. With 10 minutes to go it was 2-2, following a penalty to Unley then a scrappy Scotch goal following a free kick goal mouth scramble. In the closing minutes both teams were pushing and fighting hard, and it was unfortunate (for us!!) that Unley had the knock-out blow when a tepid shot somehow found the back of the net from about 15 yards. On the whole though Unley showed much more organisation and intensity over the 90 minutes and created the majority of chances. It was disappointing that we unfortunately were very flat and played far from our normal standard as a team, with our most positive performers being Rooney and Eirik. One positive from the game was that we could play so poorly and still be close to getting a result. Chin up though!! Three wins and a result to go our way and we are still in with a big shout!! B Grade Scotch 1 -4 Unley At 1-1 at the half and following several great chances and having rode our luck quite well, we were hoping that a shock result may be on the cards if we could hold it together for the whole 90 minutes. As the score reads, obviously we couldn't!! We were over run in the final 25 minutes by a fitter and much more experienced team that proved their worth for being at the top of the table. An honorable mention to Catton for a great individual performance, and a very big welcome back to some original Scotch OCSC founders Haydos and Marcus to the team following a long absence. Welcome back boys!!!