Bazza Double Helps Sink Bentleigh
Posted: 18 July, 2007
| Bentleigh Greens | 1 | — | 5 | Langwarrin |
| Chris Quinn Caleb Nicholes Barry Tulloch (2) Ali Memedovski |
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Round 14: Bentleigh Greens v Langwarrin — 15 July, 2007
Langy travelled to Bentleigh Greens for a Sunday game, their second of the season, to take on the second placed Greens. Langy were sitting 4 points behind them in 5th position and knew they had to take something out of the game to stay with the leading pack. The squad was the same as the previous week apart from a change on the bench where Ali Memedovski came in for Steve Vernon. The Ressies game was cancelled, which was a strange decision as the main ground was like a golf fairway and there were 3 other grounds that were in good condition also.
The game started off at a hectic pace with both teams going for each other, as you would expect with this clash. Langy was getting great service out of Shane Tagliaferro down the left hand side and Sam Hehir on the right was doing well keeping Bentleigh's Fikret under control.
Langy suffered a blow on the 15 minute mark when Thomas Ahmadzai went into a tough tackle and came off with an ankle injury. He was subbed for new lad Barry Tulloch. Straight away Tulloch had a influence on the game making some great runs into the heart of the Bentleigh defence. It was on one of these runs that created the opening goal. Tulloch was making a great run down the left hand side when he was brought down near the side line. Sam Harir whipped in a quality free kick which was met superbly by Chris Quinn who nodded it home. So 1–0 Langy after 27 minutes.
Bentleigh then upped the tempo of their game and applied more pressure to the Langy goal, but the defence of Quinn, Breslin and MacNichol was standing firm and anything that did come through was cleaned up by the Langy Custodian Chris Jones.
So at half time it was Bentleigh 0 Langwarrin 1.
Bentleigh came out in the second half the way they finished the first, applying pressure to the Langy goal and determined to get a goal back. For all the pressure that Bentleigh applied it only amounted to a few corners and free kicks from outside the box, which were being superbly handled by Chris Jones. 20 minutes into the second half Caffrey replaced the hard working Adam Poole, Caffrey had immediate effect when he was involved in Langys second goal 5 minutes later. Caffrey chased down and won the ball from the Bentleigh striker on the edge of the Langy box, played the ball to Big Caleb who then laid off a first time pass to Barry Tulloch who continued his run without breaking his stride and out ran 2 Bentleigh defenders, the keeper came racing out and Tulloch was able to slot it into the back of the net. 2–0 Langy.
This was the sucker punch that stunned Bentleigh and Langy now were well on top, 5 minutes later and it was 3–0. Now with Langy well dominant and full of running, Karl Cochrane put the Bentleigh defence under severe pressure and the defender passed the ball straight to big Caleb just at the edge of the penalty box. He took one step and bang, curled it into the top left hand corner of the goal.
This goal totally deflated Bentleigh and Langy now was full of running and going for the kill, Sam Harir won the ball in the middle of the park and played a great ball for Tulloch to run on to. He out sprinted two Bentleigh defenders before rounding the keeper and slotting the ball into the empty net, 4–0 to Langy.
Big Caleb was then subbed for Ali with 10 minutes to go, who was looking to get a piece of the goal feast and he didn't take long for him to score. With 89 minutes played Quinn won the ball in defence and played a beautiful pass to Caffrey, who then held the ball up and drew the defender, jinked and slipped a ball to Ali who ran onto it and slipped the ball past the keeper to make it 5–0 Langy.
The only sour note for Langy was that straight from the kick off Bentleigh worked it down the left hand side and sent in a cross that should have been cleared by the Langy defence. However it was met by Bentleigh's Fikret who was able to nod the ball home for a consolation goal for Bentleigh.
So that's how it finished 5–1 to Langy and a great result for the team and even more important it meant that Langy now moved to be only 1 spot off second. This now sets it up very nicely for a huge derby game against league leaders Frankston Pines. This should be a cracking match with Langy looking to get revenge for the last time these 2 teams met when Pines won 1–0 and also close the gap on the league leaders. Hope to see all the Langy faithful there to cheer on the boys and hopefully witness a great match and an even better victory for Langy.
