Nicholes & Craig score on return, as Langy defeat Port
Posted: 26 June, 2007
| Langwarrin | 3 | — | 1 | Port Melbourne |
| Caleb Nicholes Stuart Craig Tim Paton |
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Round 11: Langwarrin v Port Melbourne — 23 June, 2007
Langy welcomed back Caleb Nicholes from Springvale White Eagles and Stuart Craig back from his knee reconstruction, for the match against Port Melbourne. Port, who under new coach Jeff Oliver had signed 9 new players recently, were going to be a tough opponent for Langy, even though Port were sitting in last position on 3 points.
The match got off to a hectic start and Langy thought they had scored after 5 minutes when a huge clearance from the Langy keeper Chris Jones found Timmy Paton, who out muscled his marker from the contest and lobbed it over the advancing keeper. Unfortunately for Langy the ref deemed that Timmy fouled his marker and awarded Port a free kick.
Langy's luck didn't get any better and 2 minutes later they had to make a substitution with Matty Hakvoort pulling his hamstring and being replaced by Stuart Craig. This meant a reshuffle with Karl Cochrane going back to a marking role in defence and Big Caleb being pushed up front. It didn't take Stuart long to get stuck in and test his knee out as he won 2 tough tackles in quick succession, this resulted in the ball falling to Caleb who ran at the defence and was brought down 25 yards from the edge of the penalty box. Brian MacNicol crossed the ball to the edge of the six yard box where it was cleared by a Port defender, the ball fell nicely for Shane Tagliaffero who smashed the ball on the half volley goal ward bound only for Big Caleb to flick it past the keeper at the edge of the six yard spot.
It didn't take Langy long before they were 2-0 up, a long goal kick from Chris Jones was flicked on again by big Caleb. Timmy Paton headed it on very bravely and Stuart Craig made a great run to collect it at the edge of the box and managed to just knock it past the keeper in a very brave and gutsy move. The work was not over yet for Stuart as he had to lunge at the ball as he was quickly closed down by the Port defender and managed to turn it into the net.
2-0 Langy after 13 minutes
Port tried to fight there way back into the game but the defence of Quinn, Cochrane and MacNicol was holding firm, with any shots that did get through being well held by the Langy keeper Chris Jones. Ten minutes later and langy were 3-0 up, and it was that man Caleb who was involved again, he picked the ball just inside Langy's attacking half and went on a run beat 2 players before the last player brought him down giving Langy a free kick 25 yards from goal. Breslin and Nicholes stood over the ball and the crowd and Port players must have been anticipating one of Caleb's trade mark free kicks into the top corner. But it was not to be as Breslin ran over the ball and went down the left hand side of the wall Big Caleb then slipped the ball to him and Breslin put in a quality cross to Timmy Paton who banged it into the back of the net from all of 6 yards out, quality move by the lads and that's how it finished at half time 3-0 to Langy.
Port came out fired up in the second half and you could not blame them after the roasting that they received at half time from their coach. It seemed to do the trick as they had Langy on the back foot right from the start of the second half and they scored a goal 10 minutes into the second half. A great cross from a corner was met sweetly by the Port centre half and found the top right corner of the goal.
So it was game on as Port confidence grew but the Langy defence held firm and got back on top, especially Quinn and Cochrane who were having great games. Caffrey then came on for the tiring Poole and he created a number of chances when he came on, one in particular where he took on a defender and jinked and twisted and turned him about 6 or 7 times and just as he was about to pull the trigger and shoot at goal, they collided and the ref gave a foul for hand ball, very strange decision that one. Vernon then came on with 10 to go for big Caleb as Langy looked to run out the game and that they did winning the game 3-1.
So a great victory by the lads over a Port team who will take points off teams in the games ahead. That sees Langy undefeated in the past 5 games and now move them up to 5th on the ladder and even more importantly only 5 points from top and 4 from second position.
This sets it up for a great clash against local rivals Dandenong Thunder under lights this Saturday night with the reserves kicking off at 5.00pm and seniors kicking off at 7.00pm, so hopefully everyone can get down to this one in what should be a classic encounter.
