Sunday, April 19, 2015

Match Report: London St George vs Loko

Sportsman's League,
Senior Amateur Division

Sun 19 April 2015
London St George 6 vs Loko 0


ST GEORGE SHOW THEIR CLASS DESPITE LOKO'S RESISTANCE




St George play excellent football. They thrashed us on three occasions this season but, with the return of several quality players, today's game was our chance to show them that we are not as bad as they think.

St George were very motivated though as they needed to win by a big margin to keep Schelp FC at arm's length and win the league in the next few weeks.

Loko held their own for a good 18 minutes though. True, it was one-way traffic with Loko unable to hang on to the ball and St George making pinpoint passes and showing no weakness but we still managed to frustrate them.

On 12 minutes, our goalie Ismail made the first of his many saves today as he flicked a hard shot over the bar.

On 18 minutes, their number 15, a winger who even Marcel, our fastest player, found very difficult to keep up with, scarpered down the right wing, crossed close to our goal and their number 12 opened the score by slamming the ball into the net at the far post.

Loko were desperately trying to build attacks from the midfield but found that St George were too young, too fit, too fast and too skilful for us. This is the type of game where Loko's better players are made to look very ordinary.

On 29 minutes, as St George were possibly thinking that it wasn't going to be that easy after all, we conceded a second goal when a shot from the edge of the box found its way in as it swerved past Ismail at the last second .

With the incessant bombardment and without Ismail's saves including another great rescue mission as the ball whizzed past his right corner, it could have been 5-0 at half time but Loko were remarkably composed. Neil was trying to play the ball out of defence, Marcel was running himself into the ground and Beni and Terry were attempting to attack but most of their efforts were instantly nipped in the bud by our opponents' ever vigilant defenders.

Half time: St George 2 vs Loko 0

Sadly, after such a resilient performance in the first half, Loko's hopes came crashing down within 2 minutes. A punt from the midfield saw their number 14 outpace our defence and fire a shot from the edge of the box into the net past Ismail. To make matters worse, in the course of this attack, Gary fell to the ground with a bad injury and had to come off and be replaced by Ivan.

St George 3 vs Loko 0.

The fourth goal came 10 minutes later as their winger crossed but the ball hit Ivan in the stomach and was deflected into the narrow space between Ismail and his left post.

From then on, attacks after attacks ensued. Starting from their central defender who shows remarkable aerial power despite his small size to the midfield and forwards, St George were simply superb. They played with great flair and their short and long diagonal passing was equally sensational.

On 66 minutes, St George failed to score when one of their forwards missed the target as he found himself one on one with Ismail who saved over the bar. This was followed by a quickly taken corner and a header that Ismail, again, clipped over the bar.

At the other end, despite a few corners in our favour, we didn't record a single shot on goal. Meanwhile, St George scored their fifth with a header from a corner kick as Terry tried to save with a header as the ball flew over Ismail's head.

As frustration took hold of us, tempers became frayed, in particular Beni and Mark who had a go at the ref.

St George scored a 6th goal as their number 8 crucified Ismail with a shot into the roof of the net from the edge of the box.

Despite the heavy score, as the ref blew the final whistle, we didn't seem to feel too dejected given that we had tried our best but it was evidently mission impossible on the day.      

Before the team made their way back to the changing rooms, the player of the season award was revealed with Gary, Mark and Matt coming joint 3rd, Hayden second, and just like in 2014, player of the season went to Neil (pictured below) on account of his sheer determination, courage and incisive play throughout the season.

Man of the match: The football cliche "playing with a smile on their face" is quite apt in the case of ISMAIL who seemed to be enjoying his game more than any of the other players today. Our evergreen goalie showed great reflexes and possibly saved us from even worse annihilation. Well done Ismail.

Line-up: Ismail - Neil, Gary (then Ivan, 47'), Mark, Marcel - Beni, Terry, Matt, Dave K, Hayden - Dave F.




No comments: