Sunday 11th March 2012
Sportsman's League
Division 4
Division 4
Loko 1 v Parklife B 4
INJURY-RAVAGED LOKO IN SECOND HALF COLLAPSE
Thirteen players turned up at our home ground in Raynes Park along with a spectator in the shape of a beaming Vincent, who’s been absent from the team for over a year due to an ACL injury and is now in rehab and on his way back.
Vincent kindly ran the line for the referee during a first half that, yet again, was unlucky for Loko. Terry was carrying an ankle injury and therefore playing in goal and, to make matters worse, Lady Luck abandoned the railwaymen again six minutes into the game. This is when new player James T, who the club expected would take over from Renato as the club’s long awaited hotshot upfront, had to leave the pitch after pulling a muscle.
This gave the other new player James B an opportunity to show what he was capable, which he did with a flourish. Along with Kevin on the left hand side of the defence, James B was being adventurous whilst never relinquishing his defensive duties. At that stage, Loko were passing the ball around the pitch capably but were still not creating much though.
With only 14 minutes on the clock, a ball through the middle ended up on Ismail’s patch but our central defender missed the interception and failed to clear, thus letting their big forward loose and clear on goal with Terry as the final hurdle. Sure enough, his unstoppable low shot ended up in the back of the net.
Despite this setback, Loko didn’t change their style and kept venturing forward. On 23 minutes, KEVIN (pictured) saw the ball bounce back in front of him on the right side of the pitch following a Parklife clearance and he let rip from 30 yards out with a great volley which hit the crossbar. A few minutes later Luiz overtook his defender and found himself clear on goal but his effort was parried in style by the quality Parklife keeper.
In front of our goal, Ismail was doing very well in his sweeper role behind Ivan who was trying to scare his opponents, bellowing his name whenever the ball was up in the air whilst Dave J was being his quiet, efficient self running up and down the pitch and covering every blade of grass on the pitch.
Half time: Loko 0, Parklife B: 1
The second half started in the very same vein with Loko gaining confidence as time was ticking by in an encounter that somehow lacked the intensity of a proper league game. This might have to do with the fact that the game was devoid of some of the ferocious challenges witnessed earlier in the year, but Loko really needed to push themselves more to get something out of the match.
On 61 minutes though, an attack that originated on the left hand side saw their winger run into the box from the left, escape the attention of two defenders and place his shot accurately between Terry and the upright and into the net. Loko 0, Parklife B: 2.
This was quickly followed by a third goal 6 minutes later that saw their other winger loiter on the right hand side of our box, open up his body and curve the ball past Terry and into the left hand side of our net. Loko 0, Parklife B: 3
At that stage, Matt, who’d been playing as a number 6 started limping badly but had to soldier on as we’d already used all our substitutes.
Fortunately, Luiz, who had been linking well with the attack found himself two yards away from a certain goal following a bit of a kerfuffle in the Parklife defence and one of their massive central defenders took him out. Penalty! Despite his sore ankle, Terry could sense that an even more impressive goal season tally beckon so he hurried from his box to the penalty spot and proceeded to convert the penalty kick by shooting straight through the middle past their diving keeper and into the net. Loko 1, Parklife B: 3.
However, with only 16 minutes on the clock, Parklife put paid to Loko’s aspirations by converting a free kick from 20 yards out that flew over the Loko defence and ended up in the roof of our net. Loko 1, Parklife B: 4
Club Secretary Ivan said: “In the words of Sven, first half good, second half not so good. We’re having to recruit new players all the time as many of our players are currently injured or working or on holiday. The teams we’re playing against seem to have the same core of players week in week out, a luxury we cannot avail ourselves of unfortunately. Credit to the regular players and the new guys but of course, it takes time to gel so here‘s hoping that we can retain the new players who’ve helped us out over the past few weeks. I’d also urge the players who yet haven’t paid their membership to do so now. The club’s resources are being badly stretched plus it’s not fair to those players who’ve already settled their account as this means we cannot buy new kit, new equipment let alone pay our league fees.”
Man of the Match: James B - visibly peeved for not starting the game but took his chance and shone when he came on. Well done! Special mention to Kevin and Ismail.
Line-up:
Terry
Dave J
Ismail
Ivan
Kevin
Matt
Dave F
Luiz
Lawrence (then Morris, 4 mns)
Dave K
James T (then James B, 6 mns)
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