Monday, February 23, 2015

Match Report: Loko vs Clapham Rovers

Sportsman's League,
Senior Amateur Division

Sun 22 Feb 2015
Loko 0 vs Clapham Rovers 6


LOKO COLLAPSE IN THE SECOND HALF




With Riverside Lands waterlogged and no grass pitch alternatives available, Loko ended up playing a league game on 3G for the first time ever.

Clapham Rovers are top of the league and Loko are bottom of that league but the disparity between the two teams wasn't obvious in the first 20 minutes. Loko were playing well, having reverted to a more conservative 4-strong line of defence in front of John who was playing his first game of 2015 with Loko after a 2 month-layoff.

In midfield, Terry, who was also making his comeback, was running up and down, tackling and going forward and his energy seemed to rub off on the rest of our midfielders. Gary had a good start as well but his knees could not take the pounding on the 3G surface and he had to come off and be replaced by Mason.

However, on 23 minutes, Ivan fouled one of their forwards by the touchline and the resulting freekick saw their number 8 power a header unchallenged into the net from 2 yards out.

Loko 0 vs Clapham Rovers 1

This was followed by another goal 7 minutes later when their number 6 thrashed a ball into John's bottom right corner from 20 yards out.

Loko 0 vs Clapham Rovers 2

Despite these two goals against the run of play, going forward, we seemed more confident and were presented with two clear chances. On 33 minutes, a cross from the right was cleared away by their defence but as the ball was making its way back towards their goal, James had a chance of scoring from 3 yards out but he missed the target.

Four minutes later, James seemed to have broken his duck as he chipped the keeper from just outside the box but his goal-bound shot was cleared on the goal line at the last second.

Half time Loko 0 vs Clapham Rovers 2

The second half got off to a bad start when their number 11 won the ball off Ivan and took a shot from 18 yards out and his effort glanced off the post into the bottom corner.

Loko 0 vs Clapham Rovers 3

Loko were now getting rattled and what didn't help was Clapham's immensely talented but cocky number 11 who got right up Mark's nose whilst a few other skirmishes erupted across the pitch.

As Loko were losing their heads, Clapham scored a fourth one on the hour as Chris their manager celebrated his first goal for six years whilst the Loko men's heads dropped as their began to realise that another heavy beating was looming. Andrei came on for Ivan with Matt moving into central defence.

To compound matters, the ref, who was not having a great day as he was missing obvious fouls, showed John and Neil yellow cards for dissent.

Sure enough, the Rovers scored another two goals but at this stage it was all academic. In contrast to previous years, we are having a tough time in this league but we have 5 more games to go between 1 March and 19 April including yet another long awaited grudge match vs Lonsdale on 22 March...

Final score: Loko 0 vs Clapham Rovers 6

M.O.M: No stellar performance today but the award this week goes to all-action TERRY.

Line-up: John - Neil, Mark, Ivan (then Aandrei 60'), Marcel - Terry, Danny, Gary (then Mason 27'), Matt - Dave, James

No comments: