Bruised And Battered Langy Grind Out Great Victory
Posted: 30 April, 2010
| Langwarrin | 3 | V | 0 | Clifton Hill FC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M.Durrand C.Nicholes J.Harris |
||||
Round 3: Langwarrin v Clifton Hill FC – 24 April, 2010
Langy were looking for their first home win of the season and were feeling pretty confident after last week’s brilliant 3-0 away win to Fawkner. Unfortunately they were rocked during the week with the news that 3 players had injured there knees during last week’s games and training. Those players being Chris Jones, Ben Cullen and Mladden. So the starting line up was young Nick Thomas in goals with a back four of Ray, Karl Cochrane (making his return after his car accident) Reha and Danni Black. In Midfield Was Simon Mur, Chris Driver, Joe Harris (making his debut for the club) and Wayne Gordon. Up front were Matty Durand and Caleb Nicholes. On the bench Ben Caffrey, Boris Ovcin, Kristian Kustura and Sean Skelly.
Considering the changes Langy had made they had started very well, passing the ball around and getting good movement down both wings. It was with one of these moves that Langy had thought they had opened the scoring in the 11th minute when a great move worked down the right hand side by Buzza and Danni Black, with Danni Black making a great cross and Caleb Nicholes was able to flick the ball into the back of the net. Unfortunately the linesman had up his flag to the dismay to the Langy faithful.
The Langy defence was holding strong with Karl Cochrane and Reha giving young Nick in goal plenty of protection, but when he was called into action Nick pulled off some quality saves. This inspired Langy even more and a great mover a by Buzza beating a few players and unleashing a great shot that was well saved by the Clifton Hill keeper who pushed it away, but some great back up work by the new signing Joe Harris so him bang it into the back of the net to give Langy a 1-0 lead after 27 minutes.
Langy continued to keep pressing, looking for that second goal and they didn’t have to wait too long, with 33 minutes on the clock a it was some great work down the wings again but this time down the left hand side with both Ray and Simon Mur combining well before Ray laid off a great chance to Matty Durand just inside the penalty box, he took a great touch and hit a sweet left foot shot into the top left hand corner, this topped off a great move with a great goal.
Just when Langy thought it was all plain sailing and was going to be another great day at the office, tragedy struck when young Nick the keeper made a great save with a Clifton Hill and Langy player sliding into him. Unfortunately he copped a knock to the ankle and for the second week in a row Langy have had their keeper carried off on a stretcher. On in Nick’s replacement was Sean Skelly making his way back to the Senior team after a long layoff due to an Injury last year. He did very well and Langy hung on for the last 7 minutes of the 1st half to go in at half time 2-0.
Clifton Hill came out in the second half determined to amends from a poor 1st half and straight from the start you could see what their intentions were and that was to put pressure on Sean the new keeper by making life very difficult for him by bombing in the ball into the box. This pressure paid off and 8 minutes into the second half Clifton Hill made it 2-1, when Clifton Hill sent in a great cross that Sean failed to hold and the striker from Clifton Hill was able to belt home.
Clifton Hill then tighten the screws even more and had about 6 corners in quick succession, and the pressure finally paid off when a Clifton Hill Player was left unmarked inside the 6 yard box to head home the equalizer.
It looked from here as though Clifton Hill would go on to win this game as Langy looked shell shocked, but to their credit they started to get themselves back into the game. This pressure paid off when Big Caleb went on a solo run and was brought down just outside the box and the Clifton Hill defender was show the red card for his second bookable offence. This left Langy when just over 15 mins to take full advantage of the situation and in 5 minutes they truly did. It was that man Caleb Nicholes again who produced the goods after some great pressure work by Boris and Matty Durrand which set up Caleb who went on a solo run took it to just inside the box and unleashed a great shot with his left boot into the back of the net. So Langy were now back into the lead 3-2
Caleb was then subbed with 10 mins to go and Ben Caffrey came on and he continued on from where big Caleb had left off and had a couple of great chances to finish the game off, but unfortunately he couldn’t find the back of the net. But it wasn’t to matter as Langy held on for a hard fought 3-2 win and with all the injuries that they have received prior to the game and during the game they will be very pleased with the result.
This result moved Langy up to 3rd position 1 point off top. This week Langy take on Whittlesea on Sunday which should be another cracker of a game and hopefully they can make it 3 in a row and we hope all the Langy faithful can make the Journey to Epping Stadium.
Team: Thomas (Skelly 38), Black, Ulusoy, Cochrane, Markley, Harris (Ovcin 72), Driver, Gordon, Mur, Durand, Nicholes (Caffrey 78)
Unused Sub: K.Kustura
