Friendly
Lokomotiv Londres FC 0 v Clapham Rovers 'A' 4
Ten Men Perform Well Despite Defeat
This friendly match was arranged at the last minute following the cancellation of our cup game against Valtero Wasteels. Unfortunately, two squad players let us down on the morning of the game, which resulted in Lokomotiv taking the field with only ten players.
Despite their lower division status, Clapham Rovers 'A' proved a handful right from the start with their midfield maestro/club manager pulling the strings and spraying balls to their mobile forwards. We were understandably on the backfoot with most of the action taking place in our own half.
Catalin, our new keeper found his feet right from the start though, showing good positioning and excellent ball handling skills as well as bravery. However, on twenty minutes, yet another Clapham Rovers incursion cut through the heart of the Lokomotiv defence too easily and their forward slotted the ball past Catalin unchallenged.
Clapham Rovers kept dominating but Lokomotiv heads didn’t drop. Diego and Terry’s (pictured above) trickery was causing the opposition problems in midfield but our attacks were never seriously threatening their keeper. On the half hour, a corner from the left threaded its way past Terry who misjudged the flight of the ball and let it slip past him at the nearpost.
Lokomotiv were still trying hard but being one player short was proving a major handicap. Ten minutes later, following a fruitless Lokomotiv corner where Steve and Ivan went up to make their height count, the ensuing counter attack saw their right winger speed past the backline onto a through ball from their midfield. Stefano chose to raise his arm calling for an offside but, in the absence of a linesman, this proved a futile effort. With the Lokomotiv defence out of position, their winger crossed the ball to their forward who placed the ball to the left of our exposed keeper and into the net.
A few minutes later, a cross from the left saw George, who so far had been working very hard to penetrate their defence, enter the miss-of-the-season category! To be fair, he lost his footing on the greasy pitch but he skied the ball from 2 yards out leaving any chance of recovery up in smoke.
Jusst prior to half-time, a free-kick just outside the box saw their player curve the ball to the right of the wall and low into the keeper’s bottom right hand corner.
Half-Time Loko 0 v Clapham Rovers 'A' 4
The second half saw Lokomotiv getting stuck in and never letting their heads drop. Terry and Diego were having a cracking game and pulling off good, effective tricks, Morris was making his physical presence count, George was pushing hard.
Steve was going in with his trademark flying tackles left, right and centre whilst Aaron and Stefano were pushing down the half way line with renewed energy.
Yet, despite the odd corner where Ivan’s header was blocked near the open goal and James’ foray into their defence and shot on goal, Loko opportunities were few and far between because of the poor service to the front men.
However, the midfield and defence were combining and communicating well, which probably instilled a lot of confidence into the team and allowed the Railwaymen to keep a clean sheet in the second half.
Final Score Loko 0 v Clapham Rovers 'A' 4
Club Secretary Ivan Rahal's comments:
“With eleven players, we may still not have been able to win the game but we could have at least expected a draw. So the blame is firmly on these two players who let the whole team down on the morning of the game.
On the positive side, the team’s attitude and performance were extremely encouraging. We got some much needed practice before our next crucial games and have now recruited a good new keeper into the bargain. Roll on our next competitive match!"
Team Line Up
1. Catalin
2. Stefano
3. Aaron
4. Ivan
5. Steve (c)
6. Morris
7. Terry
8. Diego
9. George
10. James
Man of the Match
The whole team performed well but the award goes to Terry for showing great technical and effective skills and commitment. Special mention goes to Catalin and Diego who both exceeded expectations with good performances.
Match Report by Ivan Rahal and edited by Dale Mellor.
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