Langy Fail To Take Chances
Posted: 22 August, 2007
| Langwarrin | 2 | — | 3 | St Albans Saints |
| Barry Tulloch (2) | ||||
Round 19: Langwarrin v St Albans Saints — 18 August, 2007
Langy took on St Albans, a team who were one spot below and 4 points behind Langy on 34 points. St Albans still had a slim chance of promotion and needed a win against Langy to stay in touch and Langy need a win to bounce back from last weeks result and put them back in the hunt for a promotion chance.
Langy started with a very attacking formation with 3 strikers as they desperately needed the win. Into the team came Matty Hakvoort and Thomas Ahmadzai, replacing Stuart Craig and Timmy Paton who started on the bench along side Ben Caffrey. Matty was moved into defence and Dave Breslin was moved to the left side of midfield.
With the attacking formation Langy got of the best possible start when after 6 mins it was 1-0 to Langy. Shane Tagliaferro took a long throw on the right hand side and it was not dealt very well by the St Albans, the loose ball fell to Thomas Ahmadzai who hit the ball first time and scuffed it. His shot however fell nicely for Dave Breslin who took one touch and cut the ball back across the 6 yard box and managed to beat the keeper and there was Barry "the Cougar" Tulloch on hand to smash it over the line to give Langy the lead.
Langy were now looking dominant all over the park and it just looked a matter of time before they scored the next. However, on the 15minute mark it was St Albans who scored and levelled the score. A throw in on the right had side for St Albans was not properly marked, even though Chris Jones was screaming at his defenders and midfielder to mark up and to take the thrower, this was not done and the throw in was taken and played back to the thrower who delivered a great cross to the back post for the St Albans striker to knock into the back of the net to square the score line.
This swung the momentum back into St Albans favour and they looked to get a second goal, about 5 minutes latter they had a corner and poor marking resulted in a free header but luckily for Langy it hit the post and was able to be cleared away. This seemed to wake Langy up and now it was end to end stuff and a great midfield battle. No more clear cut chances were made until injury time into the first half when Shane Tagliaferro took another long throw on the right hand side and once again it was not cleared properly and the ball fell back to Shane who whipped in a great cross. The cross was met by Sam Hehir on the bounce and he managed to direct it past the keeper towards the goal but unfortunately for Langy it was desperately cleared off the line by the St Albans defender. So that's how it finished at half time 1–1
The second half started with Langy having to make a change with Dave Breslin coming off after copping a nasty tackle just before the break and he was replaced by Stuart Craig. Langy didn't settle to well and found themselves behind after 5 mins of the second half. A great run by the St Albans midfielder was not properly closed down by the 2 Langy players, he managed to swing in a great cross and found his fellow striker who hit a sweet first time volley into the back of the net.
This seemed to fire up Langy and they attacked more and more, with a couple of half chances falling to Shane Tagliaferro and Barry "the cougar" Tulloch but they could not put them away. 0 mins later it was the Cougar Tulloch who put Langy level again when a long goal kick from Jones was met by Carl Cochrane and the ball was then met by Thomas Ahmadzai who played in Barry, who took a touch before send a delightful chip shot over the keeper and into the back of the net. This spurred Langy on and 3 minutes later it was Barry the Cougar who nearly had his hat trick, a brilliant ball was played into him just inside of the box and he was able to flick it up and smash it on the volley the ball had goal written all over it but unfortunately it hit Sam Hehir in the face. The end result… an imprint of Sam's face on the ball and no goal.
Timmy Paton then came on from Sam, as Langy looked to push for the winner but instead of Langy getting the all important 3rd goal it was St Albans who scored it. A clearance from Langy only went as far as the half way line where Timmy Paton was harshly challenged, the ref waved play on and the St Albans player was able to play a one two with his team mate, he continued his great run and went past a Langy defender and was not closed down by any other Langy defenders and hit a great shot at the edge of the penalty box that beat Chris Jones and sailed into the net. So now it was 3-2 to Langy with about 25 mins to go. Gus took off Thomas and put on Ben Caffrey to look for that all important equaliser.
It nearly came with about 7 mins to go, another long throw fell to the feet of Caffrey who turned his 2 markers at the edge of the 6 yard box and as the keeper advanced Caffrey knocked it past him and it rolled agonisingly across the face of the goal and just past the post. That's how the score stayed in a very frustrating day for Langy and a very big dent in their promotion hopes.
The Langy boys are still in with a chance as the 3 teams above them have to all play each other in the next 3 weeks but it also means Langy cannot afford any more slip ups and must win all of their last 3 games.
Next week Langy have a very tough game away to Southern Stars at Ross Reserve (Springvale City's ground) and the last time these 2 teams met it was a very tough affair with the result being 1–1, so hopefully all the Langy faithful can be there and help the team turn the past 2 results around and get them back on to the winning track.
