Sunday, March 29, 2015

Match Report: Parthenope FC vs Loko

Sportsman's League,
Senior Amateur Division

Sun 29 March 2015
Parthenope FC 1 vs Loko 2


LOKO STILL UNBEATEN IN MARCH DESPITE EARLY WOBBLE




Last time we played Parthenope FC, a team made up of Brits and Italians, we beat them 4-1 in the league and put in a great performance. Today our opponents were keen on revenge, albeit a peaceful one,given the excellent spirit our games vs these guys has been played in throughout the season.

As many regulars were unavailable or injured, we had to call in the cavalry. This included Kris, a Gumtree recruit from Geordieland who, to the delight of the Mourinho-loving Fanthom brothers, also happens to be a Chelsea FC goalkeeping coach. Also coming in today were Hassan and Morris after a long break from the team.

The first 15 minutes of the game were one-way traffic with Parthenope hardly ever crossing the half way line. However, Loko were unable to capitalise on their territorial advantage and rarely threatened their goal. Some of our passes were also not assured enough with several of our players preferring to kick it blindly upfield as opposed to playing on the floor on what turned out to be decent surface despite the rain and wind. True, Ollie was  twisting and turning and shaking off his marker more often than  not whilst Hayden and Beni - who was playing more like a number 10 today - were also menacing on the wings but the end product was lacking. Mitigating circumstances included the fierce wind that turned shots on goal into comical attempts and the fact that we were missing some of our regulars.

Annoyingly, Parthenope took the lead against the run of play on 24 minutes. As they developed one of their rare attacks on the edge of our box, Ivan decided to avert their effort by playing the ball out of defence but ,seeing that his way out was blocked, he passed back to Kris close to his line. Unfortunately, as two opponents were bearing down on him in the box, Kris's clearance bounced off one of their players and ended up in the back of our net.

Parthenope FC 1 vs Loko 1

Stunned silence ensued as the Loko team could not quite believe that they were one nil down after dominating so much.

After half time, Loko looked keen on restoring parity as quickly as possible. Matt was spraying ball after ball from midfield forward to Ollie and Hayden. Hassan, Dave F (pictured above right) and Gary were also getting in on the act whilst Marcel, Morris and Neil were running themselves into the ground.

On 57 minutes, Loko looked like they were going to get their reward for their hard work when Ollie ran onto a loose ball from the midfield and chipped the keeper but his shot hit the base of the goalie's left post.

Thankfully, a Gary through ball down the left wing 14 minutes later was not cleared by their right back who got caught napping as HAYDEN nicked the ball off him, ran diagonally to his left and slotted the ball into the empty net past the keeper from a tight angle.

Parthenope FC 1 vs Loko 1

Loko were now pushing harder and harder and could smell blood as they were keeping Parthenope in check despite the odd counterattack launched by their midfield maestro in the number 8 shirt.

With only 3 minutes on the clock, Neil decided to take the law into his own hands and went off on one of his legendary runs from the half way line past one then two defenders but the Thomas Muller lookalike (the face, not the style) eventually got fouled on the edge of their box. Cue freekick in a great position for Dave F, who was visibly feeling good about himself on the back of arguably his best game for the Loko this season. DAVE F's resulting shot flew cleanly above the wall and hit the net to the right of the keeper leaving him no chance at all.

8 points in the last 4 games and Spring seems to suit the men in black and blue...

Final score: Parthenope FC 1 vs Loko 2

Man of the Match: The award goes to OLLIE who gave their defence quite a few headaches, never gave up and should have scored today.

Line-up: Kris - Morris (then Hassan 20'), Neil, Ivan, Marcel - Gary, Matt, Dave F, Hayden, Beni - Ollie


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