Firstly a
quick report on our last game:
Sat July 1st –
Blackman
Oval
Conditions –
Firm pitch, sunny conditions.
Crowd –
Approx 30 plus
Result:LCW 0 vs St
Ives 2
In a week
that saw numerous controversial incidents in the Joga
Bonito, the conclusion of Sven’s unremarkable 5 year tenure as England
manager, and a nation still grief stricken at exiting the World Cup early -
almost a week after “that penalty”, the two game unbeaten run that saw LCW move
to third place in the league sadly came to an end.
After a
solid 3-0 win against high-flying St Ives in late April, the pundits were
predicting that the settled LCW side would continue on their winning ways and
complete a memorable double over the league leaders – after all LCW can boast a
defence almost as impregnable as Switzerland’s (yes their only goals conceded
were in a penalty shoot out).Alas it was not to be.
I think we
can claim to have matched St Ives in most departments, and probably shaded it
over our competitors in terms of overall possession, however the final touch
was somewhat lacking and all our endeavour and hard
work was to no avail.
After a
comfortable opening that saw half chances at either end, St Ives pushed forward
and found their reward. The normally resilient LCW defence failed to clear a
loose ball and the St Ives striker tucked the ball away from close range,0-1.Indeed one commentator noted the ball was quite
probably touched by six LCW players and another St Ives player before actually
hitting the back of the net.
Still at
half time the lads were confident of getting back into it and pushed hard for
that equalizer. Some great runs from Grant and Jon Prideaux were almost
rewarded however that last touch was missing and with about 30 minutes on the
clock St Ives broke away with a one on one against the last line of our
defence, Gareth who unfortunately clipped the strikers ankle and down he went –
penalty and 0-2 (Gareth did later try and claim that the St Ives player fell
over his feet and there was nothing he could do, however neither his teammates
nor the spectators were quite as sympathetic as they were to Lucas Neil earlier
in the week).
Not to be
outdone, Jon Parkes, again in a one on one, realizing
he may be beaten to the ball, jumped on the St Ives player’s back and with arms
around his waist dragged him to the ground.
Some might
argue that this was denying the player a goal scoring opportunity and as the
last man should have been sent straight to get a beer – however the referee,
possibly unsighted or noting that it rarely went unpunished in Germany, chose
only to show a yellow card and award a free kick.
It was after
this that LCW possibly played their best football of the match, all players
kept their heads up and gave it 100% - I think we knew if we could get one goal
then we were right back in the game and an equalizer was definitely on the
cards.
So was it a
fair result? Maybe based upon the chances created and subsequently taken, but
LCW were never out of this one and should go into their next game against Monash
with some confidence – a victory would potentially see us move back into third
place.
Finally
our thanks to Matt Logan for patiently waiting around in case we needed a
substitute.
Please let
me know your
Many thx
Dave
PS – I have
to close with a quote from Gary Neville regarding yet another competition where
England failed to live up to expectations: 'If we fail [against Portugal] we
have to hold our hands up and say talk of us being potential World Champions
was rubbish' – How true…..
Contact
Details:
E-Mail:
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Phone: 02 9939 0481
Fax: 02 9939
5221