Blue Day as Langy Lose at Home Again
Posted: 5 June, 2008
| Langwarrin | 1 | — | 2 | Keilor Park |
| Simon O'Donnell | ||||
Round 9: Langwarrin v Keilor Park — 31 May, 2008
What a difference two hours can make to 400 dedicated fans. It was a cool and sunny Saturday afternoon as the Langy faithful gathered in excitement. The weather was perfect, the pitch was fine and the form was good going in to a match that was billed as the turnaround for Langwarrin's season. The opposition was to be Keilor Park, bottom of the table and winless in eight games, yet what excited us home supporters most was the way our boys had played in their past two matches, in particular on Monday night against Bulleen. Surely another performance like that would be good enough for Langy's first home win of the season. So the crowd awaited kick-off in anticipation.
The opening ten minutes played out as usual, neither team causing too much havoc, both testing each other out. The general consensus on the sidelines was that Langy needed to score first. Too many times we've had to chase the game, as was seen in the past two encounters. Yet to the disappointment of the faithful, this again was to be the case. A long kick by Jonesy cleared everyone and ended up in the opposing keeper's hands. He too went for the hump, hitting one of his strikers about 30 yards from the Langwarrin goal. A deft first time flick on opened up the Blue defence, Keilor's other striker, easy to recognise in his bright orange boots, took one touch and found the bottom left hand corner of the goal. Poor marking and a quality shot ensured Jonesy could do little but pick the ball up out of the net. 1-0 to Keilor Park and the incredulous silence from the crowd said it all.
That unfortunately was the only highlight to speak of in a first half that brought little joy for the mob in blue. It seemed to be that final ball that was letting the home side down, many being overplayed with the Keilor keeper ready to sprint off his line to clear anything remotely dangerous up. So at half time it was the away team taking the advantage into the change rooms and Gus with his work cut out for him in getting his side back into the match.
But the second half started precisely where the first left off. Another mistake by the Langy defence was punished in extraordinary circumstances. An innocuous miss-kick by the Keilor winger was followed by a fresh-air kick from a Langy defender. The ball then ricocheted off another blue player, falling to the feet of an opposing striker who finished from 6 yards. Again, there was nothing Jonesy could do but stare in disbelief. 2-0 to Keilor and the bar was looking more and more attractive.
Though from the kick-off the home side pulled one back. A foray forward resulted in a blocked shot from Shane Tagliaferro and a throw-in won by Jamie O. A long throw was flicked on by the head of Caleb whom had just come on; the ball helped by Thomas Admadzai to the feet of Jamie "Gooner" ODonaghue. The young Englishman did extremely well to hold off his opponent and lay the ball to an awaiting Sodder, who hit it from 18 yards into the bottom corner. The home crowd made some noise as Sodder ran back to the half way line, unable to celebrate his first goal since coming back to Langy as time was of the essence and an equaliser needed to be found.
Suddenly the game was on and minutes later the faithful started to cheer at was thought to be the equaliser. A great ball up the line by Quinny found the awaiting Jamie Heard. A superb first time cross from the winger missed the opposing defender and keeper, finding Jamie O on the six yard box. Unfortunately his left foot volley went just wide of an open net, the cheering turning to sighs of anguish at what was so close, yet so far.
So that was how it finished, even the introduction of Libba and Ben Caffrey made little difference to the scoreline, as did the many goal line scrambles that saw out the final 10 minutes. As the final whistle blew it was the twenty or so Keilor supporters who had made the journey down to Lawton Park that were cheering with happiness. The rest of the crowd walked away despondently, wondering how in two hours sheer anticipation had turned to utter desolation. But what's done is done and in a weeks time another home match against Kingston City will give the Langy boys another chance to earn back some respect and find that first home victory.
Team: Jones, Quinn, Cullen, Cochrane, Tulloch (Nicholes 52), Ahmadzai, Heard, Poole(Caffrey 70), Tagliaferro, O'Donnell, ODonaghue(Rasimi 70).
Unused Subs: Skelly
