Lane Cove 1 Lane Cove West 0

A traditionally tough local derby between the Lane Cove sides ensued at the Blackman Park dustbowl on Saturday. As the scoreline suggests it was a very close affair, in the end settled by a penalty. As I saw it, the defences probably won the day, with both forward lines creating relatively few clear cut opportunities, and the midfield a very torrid battleground (which is why I chose to delay my return from injury a further week and unfortunately why our reserve goalkeeper limped off with a suspected medial ligament injury).

I think everyone would agree that a draw would have been a fairer result and we had reasonable claims also to a penalty, which did not appear to be considered at all. Paul Shelley again looked dangerous (and his play did too), shooting in a cracking shot late in the second half as we pushed for an equaliser. Paul Mattes seemed to be in everything at left back once again.

One disappointing element of this game after two extremely good weeks, was again the creeping in of dissent towards the referee. I think we all know that we play our best football when this is not happening, and it is clear that when we are complaining to or at the referee, that we are not fully concentrating on the game and/or our opponents. Let's continue to focus on enjoying our football and taking on the chin the poor decisions that every side will suffer in this league.

We have slipped to fourth on the table with 9 points (ahead of Northside Monash on goal difference). Lane Cove are top with four wins and two draws on 14.This weekend's game is against Gordon (sixth on 8 points). With Nigel's injury we can look forward to him remembering the shirts and the BBQ.

Cheers lads

Ivan