Langy Beaten By Late Brace
Posted: 17 July, 2008
| Langwarrin | 1 | — | 3 | Sunshine George Cross |
| C.Nicholes | ||||
Round 15: Langwarrin v Sunshine George Cross — 12 July, 2008
After last week's loss to St. Albans, it was now time to face top of the table Sunshine at Lawton Park. The first time around, Langy more than matched the former Premier league team; a needless handball sparking a late surge from the Georgies who finished 3-0 victors. But we all new that if our boys played to their potential, three points were a very real prospect.
So to the line up. Jonesy had the gloves. In defence were Breslin, Libba and Cullen. Across the middle of the park were Sodder, Cam, Caleb, Boris and Tommy, which left Karl and Shane to cause some havoc up front. The bench was made up of Skelly, Pooley, Jamie O and Caffrey.
The weather was freezing with rain threatening all day, though the pitch was in pretty good condition: which is more than can be said for many of the away parks we've played at this season. So with the 600 strong crowds waiting in anticipation, away we went.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a great start for our boys and within the first 20 minutes we found ourselves a goal down. A ball down the left was whipped in by a Georgies winger, the cross met on the half volley and into the back of the net. Nothing Jonesy could do, and we on the sidelines were praying that this wasn't a sign of what was to come.
But after that early hiccup, there was no doubt that Langy had come to do the job. Some great work from Tommy in our defensive half freed up Caleb on the halfway line. The big man took the ball. Looked up and played a superb chip over the defence and on to Shane Tagliaferro. The midfielder turned striker took off, cutting across his man and being brought down just inside the box. The cheer went up from the faithful when the ref blew his whistle; we were just waiting for Caleb to place the ball on the spot. But sensationally, the ref gave the free kick to Sunshine and booked Shane for a dive. Unbelievable considering our man had his legs hacked from behind, though there wasn't much we could do about it so play went on.
And just before the break, Langy got what they deserved. A lovely switch of play from Karl found Tommy with acres of space on the left. He cut in and delivered a low cross to the back stick where Sodder centered the ball with one touch for Caleb to finish. A great move from the boys in blue and going into the break it was Langy that was outplaying the top team.
During the break there was a lot of optimism around the ground that Langy could find another goal and take the three points, and while Gus went about doing this our confidence started to peak.
The second 45 started much the same as the first: Langy moving the ball around and attacking at will. Shane went on one of his runs, taking it past a few defenders and hitting it with his opposite foot, the ball flying just past the post.
But just after that, the game changed for good. The ref stopped play and went over for a chat with the linesman; none of us on the sidelines knew what had happened. Yet after a minute of talking the ref went and gave Libba a yellow card, which turned out to be his second: Langy down to ten.
Still Langy were fighting and whilst our attacks started to die down, our defending was top notch. Gus threw on Pooley to provide a bit of stability in the middle of the park, but soon after Langy was again robbed. A scramble just on the edge of the 18 yard box and out of nowhere the ref found a free kick for Sunshine. The rage from the faithful could be heard loud and clear, and it was about to get worse. Somewhere in all the protests, the ref found another yellow card for Boris: his second of the game too. Langy down to 9.
However unbelievably, we were still in it. Sunshine, with two men extra still couldn't break Langy and it should have been 9 playing 10 just minutes after Boris' sending off. In full view of the linesman, (the one that sent off Libba) Cullen was knocked over by an elbow. Again the ref went over to have a word, and all we were waiting for the red card to be brought out. It wasn't.
Though the man with the whistle still hadn't used up all his cards yet, there was more to come. A strong tackle by Sodder resulted in a straight red to the Langy winger.
So that was it, 8 playing 11 and even Langy's fighting spirit couldn't stop two late goals. But there was encouragement in the fact that the team fighting for promotion couldn't beat off our boys until they had three extra men. Bad luck to Gus and the boys as we move forward and look ahead to next week's big game: Bentleigh vs. Langy on Sunday at 3 o'clock, hope to see you all there.
Team: Jones, Cochrane, Cullen, Rasimi (sent off 62), Tagliaferro, Leopold, Ovcin (sent off 74), O'Donnell (sent off 80), T Ahmadzai, Breslin, Nicholes (Poole 70)
Unused Sub: Skelly, Caffrey, O'Donoghue
