Saints Punish Langy's Defensive Sins
Posted: 9 July, 2008
| St Albans Saints | 2 | — | 1 | Langwarrin |
| C.Nicholes | ||||
Round 14: St Albans Saints v Langwarrin — 6 July, 2008
Another long journey for all involved with Langy, this time over the Westgate and on to St. Albans. The last encounter between these two saw the Saints come away from Lawton Park with a 3-2 win in a game that Langy could have, and probably should have won.
The line up today would once again be different as Langy settles in to life after Quinny. It was Jonesy with the gloves, Karl sweeping and Libba and Cullen marking the strikers. The midfield: Bres, Pooley, Cam, Tommy and Shane. Boris in attacking midfield and the big hit man Caleb up front.
On the bench were Sean Skelly, Ben Caffrey, Jamie O and Adam Admadzai who earned a call up to the seniors with some outstanding performances in the reserves.
Unfortunately Darren McClenaghan and Barry Tulloch were out injured (Barry flying back to Scotland this week also) and Sodder was serving a one match ban for a harsh second yellow card for time wasting against Springvale (apologies to Sodder for last weeks match report).
As Langy has had to deal with many times away this season, the pitch was not up to scratch, half of it covered with dirt and the other half bumpy and hard as a rock. But there wasn't much we could do about it so the game started and away we went.
It was the home side that dictated all the play in the opening 15 minutes, pinning Langy down in there defensive half. A few long balls into our penalty area caused some hassle, but nothing that the boys in blue couldn't deal with. Unfortunately the same went the other way with our forays forward being cut off before they could even begin.
So it was with little surprise that St. Albans broke the deadlock after 25 minutes. After some good work on the right hand side of the box by the St Albans winger, the ball was driven across the box to the far post when a striker was waiting to tap the ball home.
Though this seemed to wake our boys up and it wasn't long before the equaliser was found. Cam played a lovely ball down the left wing to Bres who took it on the run. He dummied towards the by-line before cutting inside of his opponent who in desperation brought him down. The ref pointed to the spot without hesitation and up stepped Caleb. The hefty striker took a short run up and sent the keeper the wrong way. 1-1 and Langy were back in it.
It was the away side that started to push forward, coming close not long after. Shane skipped past his opponent and crossed for Caleb who just couldn't direct his header towards goal. The big man was once again in the play moments later. He took the ball about 40 yards out and ran at the opposing defence, skinning one defender, knocking it past another and then being brought down. It looked to be a clear foul, but the ref seemed to disagree, waving play on.
Whilst Langy had some chances at one end, the determination of Jones at the other kept the scores level. On no less than 4 occasions Jones produced world class saves to keep the St Albans strikers at bay, and if it wasn't for his heroics St Albans could have opened up a lead.
Sadly there was more disappointment to come for the traveling faithful before the 45 were up. A free kick was given about 35 yards from goal after a handball from Cochrane. The quick free kick took the Langy players by surprise, and the ball was quickly delivered into the box to an unmarked St Albans striker who drove the ball past Jones.
So 2-1 to the home side and we were preparing ourselves for the break. But not until one last glorious opportunity for our boys to equalise yet again. Bres found the ball wide on the left, took a touch and curled a cross to the front post. Boris was there to flick it over the awaiting defenders and on to Caleb who hit a first time volley that was poised to hit the back of the net until an outstretched leg deflected it away. So close!
Thus, it was with a bit of bad luck that Gus found his side 2-1 down at the interval, though he and his charges had 45 minutes to turn it all around.
The Gaffer tried to do so by chucking a second striker on the pitch in the form of Jamie O, while Pooley went the other way after another 45 minutes of tireless work.
But from the kick-off we on the sidelines could see that it was going to be quite a task in finding some joy up front as St. Albans dropped back and looked to protect what they had. Some good work by Shane on the wing found the ball at Tommy's feet, a long 40 yard pass and Jamie O just failed to get on to the end of it.
Not long after and St. Albans were on the counter, some good passing in small spaces creating there next opportunity. One of their strikers had a ping from the edge of the box: a stunner that was heading for the top corner until Jonesy pulled of a brilliant save. From the resulting corner a free header at the back stick was off-target.
The game was starting to slow down with both teams tiring and the pitch doing little in helping the players play football. Cam was next to have a crack, though his shot was charged down.
Into the final 15 minutes and it was time for some changes. The young precocious talent that is Adam Admadzai came on; Gus hoping some of his wizardry might unlock a stern defence. He also threw on Ben Caffrey who went straight into a sweeping role, releasing Karl to go up front.
There was no doubt as to what Gus' instructions were: route 1. With Karl and Gooner up front, Langy tried to expose the Saint's defence with some height. So long ball after long ball were played into the box hoping something may result. And it almost did.
On one such occasion the ball landed to the Gooner, he turned, a snapshot, and it went just wide, the crowd lamenting how close it was.
Just moments later Jamie had another chance. A long ball in wasn't dealt with by St. Albans, they tried to clear, but only so far as Jamie who again had no other option but to swing at the ball, this time the keeper pulling off the save. The cries of the faithful proceeded by the final whistle.
So another three points lost, but it was by no means a bad performance from our boys, just a little bit more luck and we could have got a point. But we look to next week, back at Lawton Park on good surface, hoping to see many turn out for Langy against Sunshine George Cross.
Team: Jones, Cochrane, Cullen, Rasimi, Tagliaferro (Caffrey 79), Leopold, Ovcin, Poole (O'Donoghue 46), T Ahmadzai (A Ahmadzai 75), Breslin, Nicholes
Unused Sub: Skelly
