Silver Lining for Langy as the Thunder (clouds) are blown away
Posted: 14 June, 2007
| Langwarrin | 3 | — | 1 | Dandenong Thunder |
| Chris Quinn Shane Tagliaferro Tim Paton |
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Round 1: Langwarrin v Dandenong Thunder — 11 June, 2007
Langy's preparation for this match started at 5.00pm two days earlier as the players had to endure a freezing few minutes in an ice bath straight after the Southern Stars game in an effort to fast track there recovery. The recovery process did not stop there with Coach Gus MacLeod ordering a 10am Sunday morning recovery session down at the beach in which all players attended and they all waded in the chilly water for 30 minutes in an aid to speed up the recovery process.
Out of the squad goes the injured Dave Breslin and in comes Tim Paton and Liam Swain. Gus re-jigged his line up with MacNicol, Hakvoort and Quinn in the back line and a new look forward line of Karl Cochrane and Ali Memedovski playing up front.
As this was a local derby this game started at great pace with both sides getting stuck in and the crowd did not have to wait long for the first goal. After some great pressure from the new Langy forward line they won a corner, Sam Harir swung in a beautiful cross and Chris Quinn rose well to meet it sweet and knock it into the back of the net, 1-0 Langy after 6 minutes.
This only fired up Thunder even more and they piled on the pressure and five minutes later they were back on level terms. A failed clearance by Chris Quinn fell to a Thunder player just 10 yards short of the half way line, he then knocked in a great ball to a Thunder player on the edge of the box who played a great first time ball to his fellow striker, who took one touch and was able to knock it underneath an advancing Jones. So 1-1 and game on.
Langy could have been forgiven for been taken aback by this goal but they bounced straight back and regained the lead 5 minutes later. It came from a throw that Ali managed to flick into the box only for the Thunder defender to clear it out, fortunately it feel to Adam Poole who with some great vision could see Shane Tagliaferro making a great run and he played a delightful pass into the box for Shane to run on to and smack into the back of the net. 2-1 and only 13 minutes gone, the crowd was loving it and after over 270 minutes of not scoring Langy now had 2 in the space of 13 minutes.
That's how it stayed till half time with Thunder having the better of the passing in the last 10-15 minutes of the first half, without really worrying the Langy Custodian Chris Jones.
Second half began and Thunder came out with all guns blazing, but they could not penetrate the Langy defence with Hakvoort and Quinn playing very well and in midfield Adam Poole was having his best game for Langy this season working very hard. Gus made a change on the 20 minute mark with Vernon coming on for the hard working Ali who had put in a great shift for his first start with the first team.
It didn't take Vernon long to get into the game as he chase a long clearance from Jones, as the Thunder keeper came out to meet it at the edge of the box and they both collided just before Vernon got a touch to the ball, free kick, penalty where the cries from the langy faithful as the ref waved play on. Just a few minutes later when Thunder where attacking Langy went to clear the ball and it went out wide. Karl Cochrane slide in to clear the ball only for the Thunder player to kick the ball and for it to strike him on the arm, the linesman waves for a free kick and the ref after consulting him awards a free kick on the edge of the box, amid screams from the Thunder players and supporters.
Paton then came on for the hard working Poole and a few minutes later Niall came on for a tiring Caffrey. But it was to be Paton who would have the final saying in proceedings and seal victory for Langy. As Thunder kept pressing for the equaliser a slack pass was cut out by Sam who released Vernon, who sprinted into the attacking half and played a brilliant ball for Paton to run on to and take a couple of touches before knocking pass the Thunder keeper and wrap up a very good win.
So 3 points against a very good side and lifting the team into 6th position, just 5 points from top spot with the top 4 teams playing each other this week. The Langy boys have another tough game away to Brunswick this Saturday so please try to get to the game to support the boys.
