Division 3
Sun 20 Sept 2015
Loko 8 vs Ashford Rangers 1
LOKO OPEN THEIR ACCOUNT IN STYLE
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| Luke scored four goals on his comeback |
After being based in Chiswick for five seasons, today Loko moved into their new ground - Churchfields in Chessington. True, the changing rooms are in bad need of a health and safety inspection but the flat, freshly cut grass on our new pitch looked great in the Indian summer sunshine.
Facing us today was a newly formed team for whom this was going to be their baptism of fire, ie their first ever league game.
First impressions were good as Ashford seemed keen on playing a passing game. So did we but despite the cute one-touches and triangles, we were not clinical enough despite the return of our centre forward Luke, who seemed quite inhibited in the first few minutes, possibly because of previous injuries.
But as time went by, it became obvious that Loko were on top form with no weak link and the benefit of Neil marshalling his defence and Matt encouraging his fellow midfielders.
Loko broke the deadlock on 29 minute when a Matt freekick from 25 yards out hit the crossbar and rebounded off their goalkeeper's backside into his own goal.
Loko 1 vs Ashford Rangers 0
Six minutes later, JAMES dribbled past two of their defenders and curled a delicious ball into the net from the edge of the box to make it 2-0.
Loko should have had a penalty when a Luke shot was handballed by their defender - a foul that was obvious for all to see except for the Specsavers ref.
Half time: Loko 2 vs Ashford Rangers 0
On 51 minutes, LUKE shook off his marker on the right hand side of the pitch and fired a venomous, low shot into the far corner of the net to make it 3-0.
Five minutes later, one of their defenders handballed in the box and James took the penalty but his shot was easily saved by the keeper as he dived to his left.
This faux-pas seemed to re-invigorate Loko and LUKE, again, capitalised on a Lee cross and scored with a glancing header at the far post to get his hat trick and make it 4-0.
LUKE scored again on 70 minutes when his shot burst into the net off the crossbar, making it 5-0.
Loko were now hyper dominant whilst Ashford were visibly disheartened and probably realising that this promised to be a long, painful season. They were beginning to run out of steam whilst we were on fire - including DAVE F who scored number 7 with a splendid volley that flew over the keeper and into the net.
As we were nearing the end of the game, Ash passed the ball to LEE who scored the final Loko goal.
But as we were contemplating making it a cricket score, Ashford seemed to perk up and threatened Colin with a diagonal long distance shot but our goalie pulled off a magnificent save and palmed the shot over the bar.
This was going to be Loko's first clean sheet for many many weeks except that Ashford thought differently as they pulled one back with a low shot from just inside the box.
Final score: Loko 8 vs Ashford Rangers 1.
Today Loko played excellent football as a team with great communication, concentration and commitment. Having said that, we don't know what the other teams are like. Ashford Rangers proved weak opposition so let's not get too complacent!
M.O.M: This has to be LUKE who celebrated his return with 4 great goals.
Line-up: Colin - Danny, Neil, Tony (then Ivan, 60')- Miguel, Matt, Dave F (then Ash 15'), Ash, Lee - Luke, James. (Then various roll-on, roll-off substitutions)
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