Last night, as usual after a match I was trying to get players to agree to write a report, asking everyone hoping one would come forward. I said it was sad that such great team victories and performances weren’t shared by all DBFC family. Anyway I must have touched a nerve and without anyone firmly committing I get 3 reports in the space of 2 hours. So rather than try combine and edit them I send them all out for different reads ——– all with the same theme of “Brave Heart DBFC” —- world class at some level J
Read and enjoy boys J
Gazza
Report by Scotty:
Monday 27th match 2017
DBFC Vets 3 – 1 HKFC Vets
Gk – Gianluca (Captain), Rb – Bazza, Lb – Kiran McKnight, Cb – Morse, Cb – Steve, Rm – Scotty, Cm – Dan Lye, Cm – Steph, Lm – Amin, Cam – Oscar and Cf – Moti. Subs: Nick and KC.
Scorers Amin, Stephano and Scotty
Assists Scotty x 2 and Stephano
A break from the league gave us a game in the champions league v HKFC. The above team went onto the pitch with strict instructions to keep it clean and move the ball around. We managed to do this nicely and scored our 1st goal within 10 minutes, some nice passing play down the right Bazza laid ball to Scotty who whipped in a Beckham esc cross for Amin to get on the end of at the near post to dispatch into the back of the net. We continued to play some nice football without being troubled too much by HKFC. Our 2nd goal came from a nice lofted ball into channel by Oscar for to Scotty who managed to beat the keeper to it and got it over him but was cleared from going in. However the clearance was poor and fell to Steph who put it in.
Half time came and the message of more of the same please from gaffer Gazza. HKFC would come at us hard but if we kept our shape and discipline we should be able to weather the HKFC storm. However, HKFC got one back after only 10 minutes of the second half and continued to have the better of this half such that DBFC were confined to many periods of backs to the walls defending. This all-out attack left HKFC vulnerable to DBFC counter attacks and some nearly paid off. It was one of these counter attacks with 5 minutes left to play that saw DBFC get there 3rd and decisive goal. A nice through ball from Steph for Scotty to run on to behind the HKFC CB and show some good strength and balance to hold him off before sweetly lobbing the ball over the advancing HKFC keeper.
A great team performance which resulted in a great win for the DBFC boys.
Report by Gianluca:
Another great performance against HKFC ! Hopefully we got them nervous for the title race !
Difficult to give banter on a such great show, beautiful to watch from where I was, I will try anyway but I might make up a few things here and there.
A few dropouts, some of which late, gave the usual headache to Gazza the manager for the night.
He rose to the challenge and .quickly redesigned the line up in the taxi like a young Sun Tzu.
At the pitch, astonishingly, instead of a major team talk he turned to mental coaching giving personalised instruction to individual players.
Must have been all those years studying his hero Maldini and Sacchi’s Milan (or was Gazza Maldini’s hero? Who inspired who?), in the end It all came together and worked liked and oiled machine.
Young JB sat in the stands probably taking notes on how it should be done and supporting his old man like every good son should do.
Three beautiful goals for their build up and fine finishing; be aware of Scotty ! He lately found where goal ( I mean where the post physically is) and can hit the net from all kind of angles and distances !
The boys up front not only scored but worked their socks off and helped a lot defending as well throughout the game.
Our exquisitely footed mids played fine football the entire time.
No, they don’t do long kicks even when they should, they don’t just send it, not classy; they lost the occasional ball confident the boys at the back would get it covered but that is the cost of bloody champagne football, isn’t it !? I must say some quality passes and assists, great sacrifice defending from those boys as well, even the best ball artists can run we got proof now !
Special mention as usual for my boys at the back, solid as usual against the best attack in the league, solid game from everybody, thanks to Kieran and Morse who played very well in unusual position.
Couldn’t hear Morse though there must be some kind of vacuum in the part of the pitch !
Kieran ended up waking up poor Kian, his footballer son, again ! This time it wasn’t a “…oh, you should have seen me…” but a clarification request on this flat defence thing.
By the way why are you trying to curl those throw ins like Pirlo ?
Baz mate, you had the toughest client and must have kicked out a hundred balls, great.
Luckily we are a rich club and can afford it !
Gazza please just make sure we never use one of your David footballs, boy ! he doesn’t like when you kick out his ball.
The usual loud leadership from the side-lines from our now “motivator” Gazza kept us sharp throughout the game, contrary to USRC, HKFC like true gentlemen let him use their half to sprint up and down the whole pitch.
My special mention as MOM goes to Steve W who has been gigantic again winning every ball with great timing and leading the defence with discipline, great calm and confidence.
Can’t really find a DOD today so I will step up and award it to myself for my self-inflicted leg wound who rightly so got no sympathy from anybody (and to be honest for scaring everybody, myself included, a couple of times in the first half).
Report by Steve:
After 3 last minute withdrawals, we arrived and Gazza went for the starting line-up of: Gianluca/ Bazz, Morse, Steve, Kieran (CX) McK/ Dan Lye, Stefano, Amin, Scott/ Oscar as a 10/ Moti. Subs: Kieran C, Nick D.
Bazz led us through a not too taxing warm-up whilst we eyed up the familiar faces arriving for HKFC: CBs Lant and Beattie, Kenichi Sekino, Steve Tew, Simon Galvin etc. (and, happily, Dino). Can’t remember much about Gazza’s team talk but it revolved around the usual theme of trying to score more than the opposition. And of course a few classics: “This is amateur football, 90% hard work and 10% skill”. “Good job you were not playing Gazza or it would have been 99/1. We knew that Galvin would be a threat on the wing so we lined up Kieran Mck at LB.
Game started with a lot of passion, mostly from the DB dug-out. With memories of going down 2-0 in the first 20 minutes last time out against HKFC at KGV, we were determined to get on the front foot. After only a few minutes, Scottie chased a lost cause in an advanced position at RW and sent over a low cross; Amin got in front of their defender at the near post and swept it home for 1-0. Now if you want a blow by blow account of the rest of the first half, you will have to read Gazza’s version. Mid way through the first half we went 2-0 up with a strike by Stefano – sorry mate, I can’t remember the details! Dan and Stefano saw us through to half time with a lot of hard work in front of the Back 4 and the Back 4, with Morse in fine form, looked reasonably comfortable.
At half time, Gazza made changes with Kieran C coming on at LM and Nick at CF to provide a big man threat up front. As HKFC lined up for the 2nd half, it looked as if they had about 5 strikers, so we knew we would have a lot of defending to do. This proved to be the case and inevitably we ended up dropping quite deep, opening up big spaces in midfield. Two turning points in the 2nd half – Galvin went off injured to be replaced by Dino (the Back 4 thought this was a fair trade), and HKFC scoring mid way through. A clearance from Gianluca towards our LM was won by them and we got caught short defensively – a cross from their right winger into the area saw their Japanese striker Kenichi control well and hit a low left foot shot to Gianluca’s near post. Inevitably, HKFC saw a come-back on the cards and we had an uncomfortable 10-15 minutes, but without them having clear chances. Nerves were settled with 5 minutes to go with a through ball to Scottie, who went shoulder to shoulder with one of their CBs and hit the ball early from outside the box, hitting the inside of the post and then the back of the net. 3-1 and game pretty much over. A hard earned victory and good performances all round.
