Another impressive performance for the Reserves
Posted: 23 April, 2008
| Langwarrin | 2 | — | 0 | St Albans |
| A.Famularo (2) | ||||
Round 3: Langwarrin v St Albans Saints — 19 April, 2008
Our second home game of the new campaign for 2008, blue skies and a warm sunny afternoon made expectations high amongst the Langy faithful in the crowd, especially after such a dominating win last week.
Sean Smith our regular central defender was missing from the line-up this week. Luke Burgess took Sean’s place and Daniel Biondo came into the starting line-up for the first time this year. The game commenced with Langy starting where they left off last week… totally dominant!
For the majority of the first half Langy literally tore the visitors apart. Countless near misses by Fam on the run, Kevin with a wiz of a free kick just over the bar, Ben shielding (as only Ben can do) and turning off the defender. Corner balls in, blocked shots, scrambles in the penalty area, but alas nothing to show for our efforts.
The mutterings of frustration from the crowd grew as we continued to break through the St Albans defence but could not put the final effort away. Some of the refereeing decisions were particularly difficult to understand as St Albans used what can only be described as crude tactics to counter our superior play. Kevin received a pretty questionable tackle and "play on" was called. It took at least 2-3 minutes before he was able to continue the battle, but continue on gamely he did, obviously in a fair amount of pain for some time.
The midfield and defence were once again outstanding. The opposition could not break down either zone as Hayden, Adam, Fam, Kevin and Daniel closed down any threat. Daniel produced several first class attacks deep into the oppositions half with strong surging runs wide down the flanks.
Whilst Luke was showing early signs of uncertainty, he steadied with the help of those two twin terrors of all striker's… The Scud and Brenton. Confidence was restored and the last line maintained a good shape for the remainder of the game and held firm.
At the 41st minute mark, a throw in deep to the opposition half was firstly received by Peter Ferguson, his quick turn inside and accurate pass found Ben who held the ball up, waiting for support. Fam moving across the penalty area from the wing received a well-weighted ball from Ben and slammed the ball into the goal from ten yards. Absolutely stunning!
The Langy boys continued the pressure and were soon rewarded again in the 45th minute with our second goal. A short corner, quick interchange of passes, defenders flat-footed watched helplessly as Fam despatched a powerful shot into the net from 25 yards. Great build up and execution and what a time to strike, right on the stroke of half time.
Soon after the re-start the ball was fizzing around the St Albans wood work again. Kevin, Pete, Ben, Daniel all went close. Pete was very unlucky with two lobs under extreme pressure from an on-rushing goalkeeper and defenders closing in from all angles. One just over the top and the other just wide, very unlucky indeed.
68th minute substitution, Hayden off, Liam George on, followed by Pete off, James Cullen on and finally Mitchell Blake, also his first run for the year; for Fam. Once again the high standard set earlier continued as the new players slotted into action with no problems what-so-ever.
Under a lot of provocation our lads held their heads and stayed totally focused on the job. Terrific to see such maturity from such young heads. Well-done lads.
Near the end St. Albans threw everything at us in a vain attempt to rescue the day. One particular effort saw our keeper, Sean Skelly pull off what can only be described as a "top shelf" save. It was a truly outstanding effort. Another clean sheet for old "safe hands" at the back.
Once again the lads produced another good performance and opinion from over the fence is that one day soon, someone will receive a right spanking from our team once those chances are converted.
2–0 was the final score (could have been another 2 or 3). The faithful are as one in their praise for these young blokes, they are a real pleasure to watch each week. Well done again to all concerned.
That’s my bit for this week. Can’t wait for next week at the Geordies. Let’s make the away trip worth it again lads! Cheers for now. From the Man in the Stand (Well,over the fence this week).
Best on Ground: Adam (Ran all day – great engine), Fam, Brenton
Team: Skelly, Burgess, B.Smith, Hodgson, Famularo (Blake 80), Shippers (George 68), Biondo, Ahmadzhi, McAllister, Caffrey, Ferguson (Cullen 74)
Unused Sub: Thomas, Mackie
