Tough Victory As Pat Shoulders The Winning Goal.

We return to Commonwealth Secondary this week to face a different opponent, Wolf FC, for the first time. A big squad of 21 quickly dwindled to 17 on match day and only 11 were on hand to start the game as many were late. Colin was struggling to name the team despite having only 11 players and needed assistance from the Captain to call the team.

Off the kick off the opponents ran through easily and Sherman saved us. Time for us to wake up. We struggled to string passes together while the opponents were at ease with stroking the ball around. We withstood the pressure from them and launched our own attacks. Dave was playing centre back but somehow turned up at the other box to pick up a loose ball. He drilled it right at the keeper who spilled it but Pikachu couldn’t react fast enough. We then got a corner. Harold swung it over and the keeper came to punch it out. He got the ball and Dave’s shoulder as well. The ball came out to Stuart who composed himself and lobbed it back nicely for the opening goal. The keeper seem to have injured himself with that punch and left the game. Minutes later, a long ball down our right found their small winger. Who somehow managed to squeeze his shot at the far post for the equaliser. They celebrated like they won the World Cup. Must be rare occurrence for them. Half time came and it was 1-1.

We kicked off for the 2nd half and Harold was getting much more into the game. He put a few delightful ball past the left back for Pat who couldn’t make the most of it. Not one, a few balls like this. Great to see that. Another corner for us, Harold took it. Pat, heeding the instructions of the manager, ran towards the near post and got his head/shoulder/back to it first and it creeped past the keeper. We created a few more chances but failed to make them count. Our defence was standing firm and a last ditch tackle by Kee on the fast forward kept them from scoring. Solid anticipation and timing. Sherman had to deal with long shots which he had no trouble at all. Final score 2-1.

Tough game for us as we were struggling to keep the ball and they had a few skilful players who gave us some problems. Injuries to Jansen, Bee and Ben were the downside of this victory. Hope they recover soon. Credit to both Harold and Pat for having a great game. Standout performer for me was Dave. He told me he wanted to run today. And he did. He was basically everywhere. Good job. See you folks next week.