Langy clip the Eagles wings, as they win their first game of the season
Posted: 15 April, 2008
| Springvale W.E. | 0 | — | 1 | Langwarrin |
| C.Nicholes | ||||
Round 2: Springvale White Eagles v Langwarrin — 13 April, 2008
Langwarrin travelled down the road to play Springvale White Eagles at the unusual time of 6.15pm on a Sunday night, and were looking to get their first three points of the season and stay in touch with the early pace setters and league leaders Sunshine George Cross who had won both of their opening games. It was the same squad as the week before with a couple of changes to the starting 11 with Adam Poole & Jamie O'Donahue coming in for Shane Tagliaferro and Thomas Ahmadzai.
Langy got of to a bright start making the early running and attacking the SWE defence. Both Barry Tulloch & Jamie Heard were making some great runs down the right and left wings and also sending over some great crosses. The defence was holding tight with Cochrane assisting both Quinn and Breslin in keeping the defence nice and tight and helping Chris Jones have a very quiet first half.
Simon O'Donnell had a couple of shots with one just sailing over the bar from 25 yards out. Langy thought they may have had the opportunity to make the break through when Jamie heard made a great run into the box and was felled by two SWE players as he tried to jinx past them, the Langy players and fans screamed for a penalty but the appeals were waved down. So that's how it stayed at half time 0-0 with Langy dominating the possession and shots at goal against SWE.
Into the second half and there were no changes to the Langy starting 11 and Langy started the same way they had started the 1st half dominating the play and making all the running at SWE. Then one of the key moments of the game came as Langy took a long throw into the SWE box Caleb Nicholes pushed and gave away the free kick, all should have been fine but unfortunately Billy Armour from SWE swore at the referee and was shown a red card.
Langy increased the tempo with more bombarding at the SWE goal mouth and with some great crosses by Jamie Heard and some great long throws that are as just as good as a corner from Simon O'Donnell. It was from one of these great throws that Langy got the opening goal. The ball was thrown into the middle of the penalty box and as Big Caleb went to header it but he was pushed in the back and the ref had no option but to award the penalty. Up stepped Caleb Nicholes and even through the keeper guessed the right way and banged into the net. So Langy up 1-0 now with about 25 minutess left.
Langy now were full of running and looking to get the killer second goal, with both Simon O'Donnell and Jamie O'Donahue making some great runs up front. It was from one of Jamie O'Donahue's great turn and run that resulted in the SWE captain being sent off for his second bookable offence and putting SWE down to 9 players. Langy brought on Thomas Ahmadzai and Shane Tagliaferro for Adam Poole and Jamie O'Donahue for an injection of fresh legs for the last 20 minutes.
Langy should have killed the game off now but to SWE credit with only 9 players they battled away gamely and put the Langy defence under its first bit of pressure for the first part of the game. They managed to get a couple of corners and from one of them a SWE player managed to control the ball at the edge of the box and hit a great shot that was goal bound all the way only for Chris Jones who pulled of a great save.
Ben Cullen came on of Barry Tulloch and Langy increased their pressure to get that killer goal. After some great work down the left hand side the ball broke to Simon O'Donnell who hit the bouncing ball and smashed it against the cross bar. Shane Tagliaferro also made a great mazy run and beat three SWE defenders and just as he was about to pull the trigger and keeper dived at his feet to prevent the shot.
So that's how it stayed 1-0 to Langy. This gets Langy their first win for the season and gets them off and running setting up a mouth watering clash with our good friends at St Albans with their band of merry supporters. The win moved Langy into equal second on four points, two points behind league leaders Sunshine George Cross who are on six points.
Best on Ground: Breslin, Craig, Jones
Team: Jones, Cochrane, Quinn(c), Breslin, Heard, Poole (Ahmadzhi 71), Craig, Nicholes, Tulloch (Cullen 85), O'Donnell, O'Donaghue (Tagliaferro 71)
Unused Sub: Skelly
