Match Report: Cosmopolitan FC v Loko

Sunday 11th March 2007
Barnesalona League

Cosmopolitan FC 1 v Lokomotiv Londres FC 7

Cosmo Blizted by Ten-Man Loko

A convincing performance by Lokomotiv this morning on a beautiful sunny spring Sunday morning in Barnes, on the west side of London.

The teams task was made doubley hard at 9.30am due to a last minute pull out by Stefan which left an original bare eleven Loko with only ten players. The chance to recruit Cedric was lost as Cosmo who had ten men as well got there first, and he made their team a full compliment of eleven.

The team started in a somewhat unaccustomed 3-1-3-2 formation with Ismail in goal, a back three of Paul, Pete and Nick. Dale sat just in front of the back three with Rogers brother Andy in centre midfield flanked by Peggy and Adrian, with James and Roger himself upfront.

Loko started brightly and even with a man less were passing the ball around with fluency, and the movement off the ball was superb and always gave the man on the ball two or three options at a time. It took ten minutes for the railwaymen to take the lead, as a corner from Adrian went way beyond the back post, Roger retrieved it and played a delightful ball to the opposite back post, where Dale chested it down and rolled the ball across the goalmouth four yards out for Andy to sidefoot the ball home for a deserved early lead.

Loko had numerous other chances and Roger ran through into the area on a couple of occasions but couldn't quite hit the target, Peggy was getting plenty of space down the left and a couple of crosses came to nothing. On the half hour mark Loko opened up a two goal lead, where Dale picked the ball up in the centre circle and flighted a ball over the top of the defence for Roger (pictured above), who had timed his run to perfection, to run through on goal, hold off the defender and slot the ball into the bottom corner, so as it stood it was Cosmo nil the Barnes brothers two.

The Loko defence were all playing well in light of a new and unaccustomed formation and Paul, Pete and Nick were communicating well, with Andy swapping with Dale and holding a more defensive role and helping out the back three.

The last action of the half could have resulted in a third Loko goal, as Adrian played Roger in down the side of the area, he turned his man and laid a ball off to Dale who shot first time from the edge of the box but the ball sailed a yard wide of the goal.

Half-Time Cosmopolitan FC 0 v Loko 2

The mood was positive at half-time and everyone chipped in with encouragement and a need to step it up in the second half as the next goal would be crucial, we were determined to spring straight from the blocks and kill the game off, and that's exactly what happened with two further goals in the first ten minutes after half-time.

The first goal came as Dale played Peggy in down the left, he skinned his man and crossed for Dale, who had continued his run, to hit a left footed shot which Roger deflected towards goal, the keeper saved excellently and as the ball rolled to the edge of the area on the right hand side, Adrian (pictured above) hit the ball with venom low into the keepers bottom corner, which was an excellent strike.

The second again came through Peggy down the left who fed Roger inside the defender, he took a quick glance up, saw the keeper come off his line and played the ball across the area for James (pictured right) to run onto unopposed and sidefoot the ball home into an empty net with the goalkeeper stranded.

Loko eased off the gas a little with a four-nil lead, but still Roger and James both ran through on goal but couldn't quite find the finish they deserved. The first action of the match for Ismail in goal saw him pick the ball out of the net, as a goalmouth scramble saw a shot from the edge of the area deflect off a defender and wrongfoot Ismail and sail into the bottom corner.

Andy and Pete swapped at this point to give Andy a breather as this was his first 90 minutes in quite a while, almost immediately it paid dividends as a corner from James was met by the boot of Pete (pictured left) and the ball took a slight deflection on the way through and wrongfooted the Cosmo keeper giving Loko a fully deserved 5-1 lead and Pete celebrated estatically with James in the corner, with this being his first goal since the Tournoi in Hungary last summer.

Cosmopolitan heads had gone down by this point and Peggy (pictured right) ran through two men in midfield, played a one-two with Roger, then rounded the keeper to score a fine individual goal and add the sixth for the Railwaymen.

Ten minutes later and along came number seven, again Peggy was played into oceans of space down the left hand side, he rounded the fullback, ran into the six yard box and hearing the call from Dale (pictured below) laid it off for an easy leftfoot tap in from the central midfielder.

Roger and James were now getting in behind the defence with ease and the Cosmo keeper kept the score down with a number of wonderful one on one saves, as Roger could have scored five and James pretty much the same.

The goals that were scored today also showed a lot of unselfishness by the Loko players, as three of the seven were scored by an easy pass and tap-in when they could have shot from a more difficult angle and would have been much more likely to miss.

It was a job well done by the ten men of Loko, it helps the goal difference and with Auckland forfeiting their game against West Ken Kings, consolidates the Steamers position in fourth place. It was a good workout in hot temperatures and will help the boys conditioning in the build up to the Tournoi in June.

Final Score Cosmopolitan FC 1 v Loko 7

Team Line Up
1. Ismail
2. Paul
3. Nick
4. Pete
5. Dale
6. Andy
7. Adrian
8. Stephen
9. James
10. Roger (c)
11.

Goals
Andrew (1)
10th Minute - A cross by Roger was brought down and played across the area four yards out by Dale, for an easy tap-in.
Roger (1)
30th Minute - A ball over the defence by Dale was latched onto by Roger who despatched it into the bottom corner.
Adrian (1)
50th Minute - A low drive into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
James (1)
55th Minute - A run through on goal by Roger and a ball across the penalty spot, enabled another easy tap-in at the far post.
Pete (1)
70th Minute - A corner from James was sidefoot volleyed home by Pete taking a small deflection on the way.
Stephen (1)
75th Minute - A dribble around two players, a one-two with Roger and the composure to round the keeper and score culminated in a great individual goal by Peggy.
Dale (1)
85th Minute - A maurading run into the six yard box and lay off by Peggy, allowed an easy left foot tap-in for Dale.

Other League Results
Celtic 0 V Uncle Bob's FC 3
Ladbroke Groovers 5 v Hendrix FC 3
Real Madras 1 v Barnes FC 2
West Ken Kings 2 v South Auckland Rangers 0