Hi everyone. Hope you are well and looking forward to reading our delightful
offerings this week. Another mixed bag of results, as you can see, but a
couple of close and exciting games. We all woke up on Saturday to a
beautiful spring morning with a cloudless sky and a warm refreshing sun. So
it was slip, slop, slap then on with the sun-screen as we headed down to
that oasis of football - Larpent Reserve. Yes, Larpent! Many of us had to be
reminded of where it was, since it had been so long since we last played on
the hallowed turf. You'll have to read on to find out If the wait was worth
it. Check it out.

Weather .... Glorious spring day - sun, blue sky, the reason we all came to
Straylya.
Pitch ... The glorious green pastures of Larpent looking better than it has
in a while. Soft in parts, a reminder of recent times.
Crowd ... A fairly subdued 40 or so, but the vuvuzela made a return. The
blued tongued Scotsman didn't.
Canteen ... Always a delight. Staff rotation was high, but cordial
nonetheless. Burgers were of a particularly high standard this week. Well
done, burger twiddler Ray

So how did the table-toppers fair this week. Not bad as you will see, and
the boys had two-goal hero, Gilly to thank. The second of Gilly's brace was
initially thought an own-goal, but the match record, therefore the ref
decided Gilly had done enough to earn the goal for himself. A decision we
are all happy to agree with and with this, we can give Gilly due credit for
scoring the 100th goal of the season for the Seniors/Reserves. A fine tally
and well done both teams.

Obviously, being a team game, there were others on hand to help Gilly and
this week both squads were down to the bare bones. Marcus, Ryan, Lachlan and
Vassill from the Under 18's were called on to bolster the numbers. With Nick
suspended, Dan volunteered for keeping duties. Justin is still easing
himself back from the long injury layoff, but took his spot in the heart of
defence with Peter, Lachlan and Vassill along side him. The midfield was
very familiar - Theo, Sean, Muzz and Gilly. Up front we had Hyphenated Simon
and Nick, who was also returning, having been sidelined with a knee injury
for two weeks. Manch, Ryan and Marcus were keeping Simon company in the
technical area, waiting patiently for their chance to get into the action.

We don't need to go into too much detail this week, because it is starting
to get a little bit repetititive. The lads were never really in trouble at
any stage in the game. Apart from a spell midway through the second half,
when Simon had to make a few changes, the lads were comfortable. Muzz seems
to be having a new lease of life after a mid-season crisis of confidence,
and commanded the midfield with authority. He won a number of challenges and
claimed most of the 50/50's. This gave others the licence to play off him.
Sean especially enjoyed seeing a bit of the ball.

But it was Gilly out wide on the left who proved the difference between the
sides. His finish for the first goal was an excellent end to a sweeping move
from midfield out wide right, followed by a ball whipped into the far post
to an eager Gilly. He had no hesitation in finishing the move by slamming
home the opener. Apologies for not recalling who played the final ball in
but it was an excellent passing move and looked like it came straight from
the training ground.

Gilly's second as we said was in all honesty an own goal and it was
deflected into his own net by a hapless St Kevin's defender. However Gilly
had done all the hard work in the lead-up and it was his cross from a tight
angle just inside the box that led to the goal.

The second half was a nip and tuck affair and got a bit bogged down in the
middle. Both sides didn't really look like troubling the scorer, but the
Waverley boys came mighty close late in the half, and what a goal it would
have been. The young lads from Petey's team - Ryan and Marcus both proved to
be livewires when they came on. Not sure why they're in the U18 "B" side,
with their obvious talent, but who are we to determine these things. Anyway,
Marcus gave his opposite number a torrid time for the last 20 minutes or so
of the game. He won every contested ball and took his man on a few times
too, enjoying time and space. Shame we didn't have the spark upfront to take
advantage of his marauding work down the right hand side.

As for the "nearly goal", it came from an audacious piece of improvisation
from Ryan. He was fed the ball from midfield and found himself in the box
with his back to goal. He glanced up quickly to see the keeper advancing to
close him down and decided he didn't have time to turn and shoot. So he
improvised with a cheeky back-heel which almost caught the keeper off-guard.
The keeper just managed to get a finger tip on the ball and saved himself
from an embarrassing moment and denied us what would have easily been goal
of the season. Great to see that we still have talent aplenty in the junior
ranks, who can quite easily step into the gaps left by others.

The game drew to a close as it started with the Glenny boys clearly the
better side and deserving of the three points. Doesn't mean much to some
people, but try telling that to the boys who are playing their hearts out
week in week out. The team is top of the table and rightly so. By doing so
they are learning the winning culture and what it means to win games, hold
on to a lead, earn points the hard way and consequently earn the right to
play senior football. This is where they learn, and learn they are. The
young lads are learning from the old heads and we can look to Dan, Muzz,
Nick and Theo on the day who certainly led by example. Also great to hear
the continued words of encouragement the young lads get when on the pitch
too. Top stuff guys, keep it going and well done Simon for creating the
environment for the players to express themselves.

Now what's happening in the seniors today? In a flurry of burgers, lettuce
and a dribble of tomato sauce down the shirt front we settled down to cheer
the boys on.

Righto, here we are at the business end of the day and the senior boys were
hoping to continue their winning ways after picking up three points on the
road last week. However, Hoppy is being hampered by an ever-diminishing
squad with a number of key players unavailable through injury or holiday.
Marty, Goody, Micky, Ozzie and Anthony were all missing. That's what happens
if your name ends in "ee". It was left to the best of the rest to try and
withstand the challenge of St Kevin's.

We are still fortunate to have a young and talented squad, so we saw Peter
lead out a youthful team onto the park. Alistair in goal, Dean, Sam, Peter
and Lloyd in the backline, Alex, Kon, Metin and Avish in the midfield and
Michael P with Prashan up front were the lads set to do battle. Average age
with Met and Kon? 32. Average age without? 22.

With a full complement of officials on show everything was set for a
competitive encounter. St Kevin's need to learn though that most teams do
have two kits - a home and an away kit, specifically for the purpose of
preventing colour clashes. Like the good lads we are, we decided that we
would change our shorts to make it easier for everyone. We were within our
rights to have refused to play and accept the three points, thank you very
much. But we decided that if we were going to get three points we would do
it properly and not rely on charity. It doesn't stop us taking a dim view
though and hope the relevant people ensure some penalty ensues.

On with the game and how did it go. It went pretty well, for about 5 minutes
then the visitors took control for the next twenty or so. Finding space in
midfield they won a lot of possession and used the width of the pitch to get
behind the full backs. A combination of poor finishing and safe keeping from
Alistair kept the score blank. Without making much headway St Kevin's then
started to lose out to Kon and Prashan, who was dropping deep to find the
ball.  The only time we looked in trouble was when we turned the ball over
quickly up front and the visitors tried to break quickly.

Chances were few and far between but Prashan was unlucky with one smart shot
on the turn which narrowly flew wide of the post. Michael was also released
a couple of times and found himself one on one with the keeper. He should
have opened the scoring but the arsy keeper just managed to fall in time to
save the day for his team. The lads were enjoying the lion share of
possession now, and needed to make this count. As time dragged on though and
with only minutes to go to the break, up stepped Avish to snatch the opening
goal. He gathered the ball on the left and drove down and into the box. With
the keeper off his line and leaving the near post open, Avish saw the
opportunity and hammered the ball through the gap and into the net. A good
goal and the lads went into the break with a deserved lead.

This was an unusual occurrence for the lads as recently, they'd been having
to come from behind. St Kevin's came out with a bit of resolve and within
moments of the kick-off received a free-kick out on the right hand side, 30
metres out. A long ball into the box floated over everyone, and they had a
spare unmarked player at the far post who calmly finished to bring the score
level. Not a good goal to concede, especially from a set piece, but still
plenty time to get back in front again. Not that the visitors were happy to
comply, since they decided to grab the lead for themselves. From an almost
identical situation they scored a second. This time the ball back across the
box was not dealt with and in the melee, their forward poked home their
second goal.

From then on though, the lads decided to start playing again and basically
hammered St Kevin's for the rest of the game. How the score stayed as it was
is anyone's guess. Michael P headed over with a glancing header, Metin
blazed wide from 12 metres out and Dean also headed another great chance
just over. There were plenty of half chances too from Prashan, Kon and
anyone else who bombed forward looking to make a name for himself. But the
lack of finishing prowess proved to be the Achilles heel on the day as time
drifted away and St Kevin's stole the three points. A shame, because the
home side were probably the better team and deserved to get something from
the game.

Another three points slipped away, which is unfortunate since other results
on the day could have seen us climb as high as third if we'd managed a win.
What could have been. Disappointing but still three games to play and nine
points up for grabs. We're still on track for a solid finish to the season,
we just need to get our full squad fit and available. No shame to the lads
at the moment though as many are playing with slight niggles and some cases,
need a rest. But to still be competitive is a testimony to the guts and
attitude of the squad and will hold them in good stead for the remainder of
the season.

On the day, Kon and Prashan gave performances to be pleased about and were
supported well by Dean and Sam. Top stuff lads, unlucky with the result but
keep the heads up and get stuck into Dandy Warriors next week. See you all
then.