Sportsman's League, Division 4
South West Wolves 4 v Lokomotiv Londres FC 0
Wolves pounce on Loko-men
The game vs Sportsmans’s League debutants South West Wolves was an opportunity for Loko to consolidate its second place just before the festive break. South West Wolves have had an inconsistent start to their first season so the Railwaymen were confident they could get a good result despite the fact that they were missing five regulars.
From the word go, though, Loko were all over the place. Passes were going astray, clearances were being miskicked, players were caught napping on the ball, tempers were frayed and the defence and midfield were panicking. Waves after waves of Wolves attacks saw Loko defending the trenches and unable to develop their game whilst Steve and Terry upfront were feeding on scraps.
Loko simply didn’t know how to deal with South West Wolves and Gavyn as well as Morris (pictured above) in particular were fouling a lot on the edge of our own box but, thankfully, Wolves' free-kicks didn’t threaten much.
Following a rare attack where Loko looked like they might break the deadlock, South West Wolves’counter attack saw them outflank our defence and their forward crucify Junior from the edge of the box on 29 minutes. This was followed by almost a carbon copy goal with, again, the Loko defence out-of-position and their tall centre back not believing his luck when he found himself one on one on Junior who he beat with a low shot to our goalie’s left from 10 yards out.
Having rarely been in such a predicament over the past few weeks, Loko were floored and wondering how they were going to turn the situation around.
Half-time South Wolves 2 v Loko 0
At half time, Junior was livid and directed his anger at Ivan in particular for venturing too far afield and not doing his defensive job.
Our goalie’s message seemed to have the necessary effect as Loko started the second half with renewed vigour, getting their tackles in, passing the ball slightly better and beginning to threaten their goal. From a long ball from the midfield, Terry found himself one on one on their keeper and odds on to reduce the deficit from 7 yards out but their diminutive goalie made a splendid save by diving to his right.
On 57 minutes, a Wolves attack on the right saw a cross find its way behind Junior but Ivan cleared the ball on the goal line, only for their winger to win the ball back and cross again to their oncoming centre forward who was now clear on goal and simply tucked the ball into the empty net from two yards out.
At this stage, Ismail, who’d been playing his heart out despite not having fully recovered from a recent illness pleaded for Chris to go off but the gaffer was keen for him to stay on the pitch. Consequently, Alejandro gave way to Marcel but Loko were rapidly running out of ideas. The game was becoming predictable with some of our players losing their discipline and even trying to take on four players in the middle of the park instead of passing to their teammates.
A fourth goal came on 68 minutes where the defence got caught out again. Their forward beat the offside trap and smashed the ball past Junior from 12 yards out. There was now simply no way back and, to make matters worse, Loko were reduced to 10 with 15 minutes to go when Ivan got injured and had to come off. Terry was desperately trying to rally the troops but as the game wound up with no more serious Loko challenges, heads dropped as Loko were closing 2011 with the worst performance of the season.
Club Secretary Ivan Rahal said: “We were very poor today – inaccurate passing, poor defending, no discipline, no team spirit. Does this mean that we are just an average team when our star forwards are missing? Our first game back on 15th January is also against South West Wolves, so we need everybody back and in good shape to show Wolves what this season's Loko is all about.”
Man of the match: Although rather isolated, Terry tried his best but the last M.O.M award of 2011 goes to Junior for his performance and fighting spirit.
Line-up:
Junior
Stefano
Ismail
Chris
Ivan
Gavyn
Serik
Morris
Alejandro (then Marcel, 60’)
Steve
Terry
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