Seniors draw at St Albans
Posted: 5 June, 2007
| St Albans Saints | 0 | — | 0 | Langwarrin |
Round 8: St Albans Saints v Langwarrin — 3 June, 2007
Langwarrin headed to St Albans on the weekend, a team who are flying at the moment and were sitting 2nd on the ladder. After last weeks poor display to league leaders Coburg, Macleod rang the changes reshuffling his lineup with Ben Caffrey dropping to the bench and Brian MacNicol reverting to sweeper. Langwarrin welcomed new signing Sam Herir from Oakleigh Cannons into the midfield for his debut and brought in Adam Poole after his injury layoff. Langy's preparation was further hampered with the late withdrawal of Chris Quinn who rolled his ankle in training on Tuesday night. This meant that Karl Cochrane had to come in and play the unfamiliar roll of marker.
The game started at a frantic pace with both sides struggling to show their dominance on a very bumpy pitch. Langy however managed to create a few good chances in the opening 20 mins with Shane Tagliaferro & Steve Vernon both putting good opportunities wide of the upright. It was not all one way traffic as a great through ball by St Albans found a striker who hit it first time, but Langy custodian Chris Jones made a great save. Langy started to get on top and created another few chances, the best falling to new boy Sam Herir who had a venomous shot cleared off the line after some great build up play by Tim Paton and Steve Vernon. A couple of minutes later a free kick for a foul on Timmy Paton just outside the box presented Langy with a great opportunity to score. Up stepped Sam Herir who drilled a great shot that looked goal ward bound but unfortunately it hit the wall, Shane Tagliaferro followed it up and with the keeper out of position and empty net beckoning, Shane put it wide on the volley.
Just as it looked like it would only be a matter of time before Langy scored, the “bad luck football gods” turned against them twice within minutes. The first was a hamstring injury to Timmy Paton who was causing the St Albans defence all sorts of problems. As he was off the pitch, St Albans had a long throw on the left hand side of their penalty box which was thrown into St Albans midfielder Joe Triaccio, who turned his player and headed into the box where he went down under a tackle. Penalty! So up stepped the St Albans No17 who looked very confident of putting the ball past the Langy custodian. He was however warned by a few Langy players that the ball was in a hole but he did not heed their advice and struck the ball to the left and Chris Jones dived correctly and saved it.
On came Ben Caffrey to replace the injured Timmy Paton and he came on to a great reception from the Langy and St Albans faithful. But they must have been confused when the team line up was announced as they chanted out “SUMO” instead of Ben. Straight away Caffrey was involved in the play and managed to put in Vernon who, after being forced wide by the St Albans keeper, went down under the keepers challenge. Although the incident appeared to have started inside the box, the referee deemed it outside the box. The resulting free kick taken by Sam was cleared by St Albans and that was how the teams finished at half time, with both teams having chances but not able to find the back of the net.
Second half started and both teams continued on from where they left the first half and having a good go at each other without creating too many chances of note. Langy’s midfield of Breslin, Poole, Sam, Ahmadzai and Tagliaferro was working hard and keeping the St Albans midfield at bay, stopping them from setting up any worthwhile attacks. As the second half wore on Stevie Vernon was replaced by Ali who came on and had 2 good shots with one sailing over the bar and the other just curling wide. Caffrey also had another chance as the ball was bouncing round in the box he missed the ball altogether and any touch would have resulted in a goal, but to be fair he was unsighted at the time.
St Albans also had a good chance with a few minutes to go with a great shot from outside the box that beat Chris Jones but hit the bar and went out for a goal kick.
So that’s how it ended 0-0, good entertaining game with both sides giving as well as they got on a very bumpy pitch. A fair result on the balance of play and Langy will be pleased to go away from home and take a point at a very difficult ground to play at. With the very tight league it was a good point to gain and with a touch more luck they could have been taken all 3 points a home. Langy are now in 7th position and 6 points behind 2nd with a game in hand and with a double header at Lawton Park this Saturday and Monday it sets it up nicely for Langy to move up the ladder in what is a very tight and difficult league.
So make sure you’re at Lawton Park on Saturday to see the team take on Billy Wright’s Southern Stars and this would be a cracker as the last game in a friendly at Baxter Oval ended in a 3-3 draw. And hopefully you can all back it up on the Queens birthday Holiday on Monday where Langy take on local rivals Dandy Thunder and you know these games are always entertaining, so hopefully we can see you all there.
