Sunday 7 Sept 2014
Loko 5 vs Parklife 3LOKO IN GOALS, WASTED CHANCES AND SLOPPY DEFENDING THRILLER
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| The corner on 60 minutes that saw James T score Loko's third goal |
Playing Parklife is always a pleasure – they’re a civilised team, a great bunch of lads, always give us a good game and are always very organised. Except for today. Indeed, with only 9 of their players making it, we had to lend them 2 of our players, namely Marcel and Nick.
With the benefit of a long enough warm-up, Loko were first out of the starting blocks.
Sure enough, the first clear cut chance fell to LUKE, a man who wastes as few opportunities as Russell Brand at Spearmint Rhino's. With only 5 minutes on the clock, our new centre forward in the absence of Adil ran out wide on the left and chipped their keeper to open his account.
Loko 1 Parklife 0
Parklife didn’t wait long to strike back and their midfielder’s venomous shot from just outside the box hit John’s upright within a minute.
However, Loko were firmly in the driving seat and accumulated chance after chance. Danny passed to Beni who crossed for James but his shot got deflected at the last second. Luke was in the mood for more damage to the opposition and he volleyed a corner into the keeper’s feet. Then, on 20 minutes a long punt from midfield saw James T clear on goal but he missed his chance.
On 23 minutes, Mark ventured into uncharted territory – namely near the other team's box as he waltzed past 2 defenders all the way to the edge of Parklife’s box but his shot flew above the crossbar. This was followed by yet another James T effort where he also shot over the bar.
As is often the case with the beautiful game, possession and chances count for nought if you don't keep your head in front of goal. This was made even more painfully obvious on 27 minutes.
With their fast and furious number 24 breathing down Mark’s next, our left back commendably eschewed the obvious clearance into touch and instead tried to pass back to John. Unfortunately, with Parklife forwards hunting in packs and surging into our box, danger was imminent and , surely enough, their number 11 intercepted the pass, crossed to their forward who slotted it past John and into our empty net.
Loko 1 Parklife 1
Thankfully, trigger-happy LUKE pounced on a very accurate corner kick by Matt F and restored our lead 3 minutes later. Loko 2 Parklife 1
As Woody got back onto the pitch after going off for 15 minutes on account of his sore tummy caused by food poisoning the night before, he somehow managed to hook a Parklife corner out of danger on 39 minutes.
Loko were now visibly more confident but their main threat, namely their number 24, was keeping our somehow sleepy defence at bay and he managed to get an acrobatic save out of John just before half time.
Two further chances fell to James who by now was probably thinking he was never going to break his duck.
Half time: Loko 2 Parklife 1
As the second half resumed, Parklife were showing us we should not rest on our laurels as they attacked our goal with renewed vigour only for Said to clear one of their crosses with a weird mid air backheel.
Just like in the first half, Beni was exemplary, putting in an incredible slog, scouring the midfield, snuffing out danger, covering miles of ground and putting in dangerous crosses and through balls in truly box-to-box fashion.
On 60 minutes, Dave F whipped in a corner that was repelled by their defence but JAMES was obviously keen to put all his missed chances at the back of his mind as he volleyed the clearance into the empty goal from 10 yards out into the back of the net.
Loko 3 Parklife 1
Yet again, their most threatening forward (yes, you guessed right, Mr Number 24) outpaced our defence once again and scored from just inside the box.
Loko 3 Parklife 2
But, with only 20 minutes left on the clock, a Beni through ball carved their defence open and found JAMES. Now with only their keeper to beat, James hit their goalie in the stomach and, as the ball bounced off in mid air, he scored a rare header from just outside the box.
Loko 4 Parklife 2
The Parklife forward who needs no introduction was at it again – slamming a shot off the cross bar and following up for his 3rd goal.
Loko 4 Parklife 3
At that moment, injured Ivan decided to vent his frustration and started screaming from the touchline. The object of his anger? The somewhat lackadaisical Loko defence. To all but our defenders, attempts to raise your arm for potential offsides are clearly futile in the absence of linesmen. Yet our players kept doing it and also giving the man far too much space and, of course, if you don’t stick to the danger man like glue, he will punish you.
On 77 minutes, DAVE F missed a golden opportunity when, one on one with their keeper, he hit the goalie and shot wide as the ball bounced back to him. Thankfully, our former skipper redeemed himself when he scored a brilliant goal as he volleyed a Beni cross over the keeper’s head just under the crossbar and into the net on 81 minutes.
Loko 5 Parklife 3
With only a few more skirmishes on either side during the last ten minutes including a John rant at the keeper as our flying Irishman thought that the ref should have given him more protection following a mid air collision, it was game, goals and match for the Loko-men.
Overall, Loko yet again showed they can deploy a good passing game but will need to batten down the hatches in defence – and get fit – in preparation for their league opening clash vs Lonsdale on 14 September!
M.O.M: BENI – a stellar, never-say-die performance whether defending or attacking.
Line-up: John – Dan R, Gary, Said, Mark – Beni, Matt, Danny, Woody - James, Luke
Subs: James L (on for Woody on 15 mns) and Dave F (on for Danny on 25 mns), followed by several roll-on, roll-off subs.
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