Match Report – Greenwich Res 1 LCW Res 0

Team:

Kye

Andrew Warny Peter Cookie

Neil Larry Gavin Smirk

Eddy Mark S

Subs: Chris

Mark G

Nathan

The team turned up at the Bob Campbell oval to find a gale blowing down the length of the very average pitch (the grass left deliberately long to put us off our passing game).

Warny lost the toss and LCW found themselves playing against the wind in the first half, but this did have it's advantages in that through balls to Eddy and Mark were holding up nicely. This led to Eddy being sent clear twice in the first quarter of an hour, the first time he was driven wide and the second the Greenwich keeper did well to block his shot.

Greenwich's main threat looked like it would come from their trio of seven foot giants at corners and free kicks, but LCW worked hard at defending the set pieces and they didn't get much of a sniff in the air.

Greenwich began to edge the midfield battle and took the lead when LCW struggled to effectively clear their lines and one of the Greenwich giants let fly from outside the area giving Kye no chance.

LCW responded well and took the game back to Greenwich, Larry and Gavin were flying into tackles in central midfield and Smirk and Neil were making progress down the flanks.

LCW were rewarded for their pressure with a free-kick on the edge of the area. Eddy swerved the kick over the wall only for the Greenwich keeper to palm the ball onto the bar – Mark S then headed over as the ball fell to him on the edge of the 6 yard box. Shortly after that Gavin had a great effort which also hit the bar.

At half-time LCW were confident of getting back into the game and yet nearly went 2-0 down minutes into the second half as Warny blatantly hand-balled in the box. Everyone at the ground with the exception of the ref saw it and LCW were relieved to see the man in yellow wave play-on.

The match continued as the first ended with LCW's defence coping pretty well with the Greenwich attacks – Cookie and Andrew were stopping crosses getting in and Peter was having a stormer. Peter then twisted his ankle and had to go off, Nathan coming on in his place.

We were helped by the fact that the Greenwich side decided if they could score from 25 yards once they could do it again and shot on sight, all their efforts going high and wide. That didn't deter Kye from one of his 'for the cameras' dives for an effort going at least 6 feet wide.

Chris had come on for Mark S at half-time and was combining well with Eddy up front as LCW searched for an equalizer, but chances were frustratingly few.

LCW applied pressure to the Greenwich defence in the last 15 minutes, winning a flurry of corners and were unlucky not to have scored when Mark G headed straight at the keeper from 6 yards.

So the first game of the season was lost, but LCW reserves will take heart from a good performance, with a team still getting used to playing with each other – on another day the game could have been won 3-1.