League - Sportsmans League, Division 2
Sunday 7 Oct
Loko 3 vs Pacific Sporting Jubilee 0
LOKO GET INTO GEAR IN THE SECOND HALF
Loko turned up with a full squad of 14 players today and the team were out on the pitch a full 30 mns before kick off unless Pacific Sporting Jubilee who turned up with only a few minutes to go.
Yet, you wouldn't have guessed it from the first few minutes as the latecomers were first out of the starting blocks and causing Loko to panic and forget how to play in the early stages of the game.
Our defence in particular were off their game. On 12 minutes a long ball ended up in the middle of the park but Tommy got caught napping as their vivacious number 19 stole the ball and headed straight for goal but made a mess of it.
Then a few minutes later, it was Said's turn to misplace the ball as he was trying to play his way out of trouble.
Loko were unable to combine and leaving too much space between the midfield and the defence. The only ray of hope were Adil and James T (pictured) who were always looking like they could score despite the lack of service from midfield.
Indeed, on 22 minutes, a corner from Dave F from the left saw Adil place a good header but it went just over the bar.
Then on 29 minutes, Terry put a delightful ball in from a freekick onto Kevin's head and his deflection lobbed the Pacific defence and ended up almost behind the ball only for James T to nod it into the empty goal but the ref disallowed it for offside.
This proved one of the very few Loko highlights in the first half as we were poor and didn't get punished simply because Pacific's finishing was equally poor.
Half time: Loko 0 vs Pacific Sporting Jubilee 0
Terry reshuffled the team following Said's injury and Luke and Ivan came on to hopefully consolidate the defence. Things started looking up especially with Luke revelling in his defensive role.
Loko now looked more balanced and as Pacific were starting to tire, Loko made them pay. On 53 minutes, Adil got fouled on the edge of the box and captain TERRY stepped forward and hit the ball sweetly over the wall and into the keeper's right hand corner. Loko 1 vs Pacific Sporting Jubilee 0.
Things were on the up and Loko were now getting into the match and were beginning to play the beautiful game.
On 59 minutes, from a Terry throw-in, Luke passed to Alejandro and onto Kevin who laid the ball on for ADIL on the right hand side of the box and our Catalan forward slammed the ball into the the left corner. Loko 2 vs Pacific Sporting Jubilee 0.
Pacific's attacks were now becoming more intermitent but 10 minutes later their number 19 escaped the attention of Ivan and Tommy and found himself one-on-one against John who saved the shot magnificently by diving to his left.
Loko put the game to bed on 76 minutes when, following an overhead pass from Kevin, ADIL found his way through a crowded defence and swivelled and wriggled his way out and strode into the Pacific box and placed the ball into the top right corner and into the net. Loko 3 vs Pacific Sporting Jubilee 0.
With only 5 minutes on the clock, it was James T's turn to give the Pacific defence the slip and find himself one-on-one against their goalie but, incredibly, our sure-footed forward missed the target from two yards out and collapsed on the floor in disbelief - but the three points were now safe.
Club Secretary Ivan said: "We pulled ourselves together in the second half and deserved the three points. It would be nice to win in style but we can't complain as we're arguably enjoying our best league start ever."
Man of the match: James T was a constant thorn in Pacific's side today and therefore he gets man of the match. Special mention to Tommy, Luke, Terry and Adil.
Line-up: John - Kevin, Said (then Ivan 46'), Tommy, Marcel - Andre (then Luke, 46'), Dave F, Lawrence (then Alejandro, 60') - Terry, Adil - James T.
No comments:
Post a Comment