DBFC 45s 0-7 Spartans Immortals
Wednesday 29 June at Happy Valley 2, K.O 9.30 p.m.
Team: Mark/ Ben, Alex, Pedro, Steve/ Max, Mac, Simon, O’B/ Greg, Kieran. Subs: Nick F, Said
With Spartans on a 100% record, they were understandably keen to organize this fixture with many of our players unavailable for one reason or another. However we were optimistic that with a strikeforce of Kieran and guest Greg from USRC, we would at least have a significant attacking threat. However this meant setting up with two man central midfield rather than our preferred 3, and hoping to contain Spartans’ ex Polish international who has regularly caused us problems. We made a good start to the game and went toe to toe with Spartans for the first half. Kieran came close a couple of times with efforts that he would normally put away. Spartans got their first breakthrough about 10 minutes before half time, getting in behind the right flank of our defence and a cross across the 6 yard box to far post and simple tap in by the big Pole coming from deep. We were optimistic at HT that we could get a result but under-estimated how much we had put into the first half. We simply ran out of legs in the 2nd half and could not match Spartans for the continuous rotations they were able to make. It is always helpful to bring on a striker as a sub who proceeds to score 4! Spartans went 2-0 up early in the 2nd half, pretty much out of nothing. A ball into their RW’s feet with back to goal on the half way line with Steve standing off, and then a through ball to their CF who outpaced our central defence. We settled again but 15 minutes into the half Spartans went 3-0 up and this put the game out of reach. We introduced our only 2 subs for Steve and Ben at full back. From here on in, it was one way traffic other than a great effort by Greg from outside the area against the crossbar. We tired badly and Spartans did not have to work too hard to score 4 goals in quick succession. No point on dwelling on this, it would be good to get some more of our regular players back again and re-group for the new season.
