LCW vs Lane Cove July 15^th

Result 2-0

What a difference a week makes!

After some matches were called off due to inclement weather, it was up to match officials to decide whether this game should take place – and thankfully it did.

Welcoming back Stuart and Paul from long term absences and being forced to make changes through the unavailability of a couple of players, we knew that this was a must win game against our fiercest rivals. After a narrow loss in the corresponding fixture where we were certainly not outplayed, the team went into the game with a great deal of confidence, and it was clear from the kick off that this was going to be a much improved performance from LCW.

Before the game there was some concern about Paul Shelley’s fitness levels – 5 weeks of drinking English beer, little or no exercise apart from using his fingers to type e-mails to old flames on Friends Re-united, would he return in peak physical condition? The fans and his teammates were soon dispelling all doubts as he quickly settled back into his striking role and after about 20 mins, feigned to the left, lost his defender, cut into the right and dispatched a curling shot into the left hand corner of the net – 1-0. Shelley was back.

It is fair to say that Lane Cove constantly pressed us and had numerous corners, which whilst hard to defend against, in the main we marked their players well and when required, Lucio was always there to punch the ball away.

Not long after the first goal, a move started with the right full back, and after some excellent one-touch passing down the right wing, ended up with a fine run from Grant who played the perfect cross field pass, leaving the Lane Cove goalkeeper in no man’s land, and Nigel ran onto the ball, burying it into the back of the net – 2-0.

We went into the second 45 minutes eager to finish the job and continued where we left off in the previous half. First to the ball in our tackles, and with some excellent passing to feet, we started to take control of the game and restricted Lane Cove to the odd break.

One move that is particularly worthy of a mention saw Scott and John Cross playing some lovely one touch passes down the right wing, with I think Steve supplying the final ball to Grant, only to see the final shot just miss it’s mark.(Even their striker was hear to say that the move deserved a goal) – pity we can’t play like that every week.

Unfortunately we lost Willy to a back injury not long after this and hope that he makes a speedy recovery.

Quite often, games with great goals and quality football have their more unsavoury incidents that become talking points as long as people can be bothered remembering them – this game was no exception. I shan’t print the post match comments from Ivan, but needless to say he was somewhat disappointed that his first ever sending off in a career that boasts a previously flawless disciplinary record was to be for a punch that didn’t occur, rather than to a Materazzi type tackle that is worthy of an immediate red card.

So after all this was there anything more to add to the drama? Well yes there was. A mass scramble in the Lane Cove six yard box led to a hand ball and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Gareth spends a good deal of time practicing his penalty taking before each match, and without Ivan on the field it was up to him to give us the cushion of a third goal. Sometimes however you can never practice enough, or the keeper outplayed him in a mind game and his kick to the right was easily parried away – (this writer did in fact see a similarly executed penalty kick saved in an under 11 girl’s football match the following day) this was Gareth’s first ever penalty miss and he then volunteered to leave the field of play to mind another player’s young children.

However, we held on for a famous victory that keeps us in the hunt, and if we can maintain this type of impressive form then we have a real chance of finishing the rest of the season unbeaten.

So congratulations to all our players on an excellent team performance in what was a well deserved victory.