Senior Amateur Division
Sun 25 Jan 2015
Loko 0 vs Real Northern A 1
ENCOURAGING DISPLAY DESPITE LACK OF FIREPOWER
The night before the game Loko had a squad of 13 but what with Beni beeing called to work on Sunday and Mark being ill, it was down to the bare essentials, ie 11 players. Plus, with Adam being on the receiving end of a power cut and waking up late, it was touch and go whether Loko were going to have to start with 10. Thankfully, our central defender made it just in time for kick-off.
Real Northern A play in Crystal Palace colours and, just like their professional counterparts, they always show great energy and determination. Sporting their Inter Milan colours, Loko also looked in great shape. True, Adil is recovering from an operation and is still unavailable, whilst John is still unavailable - on a kind of footie paternity leave following yet another birth in his family - but the team never let this affect them. On that note, credit to Dan who volunteered to go in goal despite not having played in that role since the age of...6.
In the first half, not much happened in either team's box with most of the game taking place in the middle of the park. Loko's defence was rather solid. Adam was his assured self, playing a bit deeper than the other defenders, Ivan was heading balls out of danger whilst Chris on the left and Neil on the right were launching decisive attacks down the wings. Our midfielders were combining with aplomb but up front Dave F and James were having to feed on scraps although James managed to attempt one of his trademark curlers from the edge of their box on 23 minutes.
Loko went behind though on 29 minutes when a Real Northern shot from inside the box was cleared by Ivan just a few inches from the goal line but his clearance was not powerful enough and didnt make it past their tall number 5 who was lurking in the box and fired his shot in the middle of the goal and into our empty net.
Loko didnt let their heads drop and continued to pepper the Real Northern A goal with a few shots but none were accurate enough to bother their goalie .
Half time: Loko 0 vs Real Northern 1
The second half was similar to the first one. Real Northern - and in particular their centre forward - were quite nippy but whether it was a leg or a head or a fluffed attempt, Loko were still in the game. Neil was supporting and combining well with Danny on the right whilst Matt and Gary were doing well in the middle of the park whilst James and Hayden were playing well together with Hayden, on a couple of occasions, dribbling past his marker and crossing into the box but we tended to blaze our shots over the bar.
On 69 minutes, a cross from the right was dropped by Dan who had been faultless up until then despite his lack of experience in goal but Chris made a last ditch clearance on his goal line at the far post whilst Real Northern were shouting at the ref claiming the ball had crossed the line.
On 80 minutes, as Real Northern managed to breach our defence down the right, Dan did the right thing by coming off his line and clattering into their forward on the edge of the box. As the last man, he was lucky that the ref only showed him a yellow card!
Time was running out but as the clock struck 85 minutes, Loko deployed their most fluent attack yet. With a Real Northern goal-kick not making it past the half way line, Adam chested the ball down, promptly passed to Neil on the right, who crossed across the pitch for Gary who, seeing Matt striding forward, let the ball run between his legs for Matt who chipped a delicious ball into the box for Dave F who tried to dink it but his shot went wide.
Loko had been trying hard but only having one genuine forward meant this was going to be an uphill battle.
Final score: Loko 0 vs Real Northern 1
M.O.M: On account of his great performance in goal and the fact that he volunteered to go in goal, M.O.M goes to DAN.
Line-up: Dan - Neil, Ivan, Adam, Chris - Gary, Matt, Danny, Hayden - James, Dave F.
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