DBFC45s 6-3 Godfathers
Friday 10 May at Sandy Bay K.O 7.30pm
Squad: Frank/Juggs, Sean P, Steve, Gazz/Dirk, Morse, Thierry, Bazz, Michel/Ariel
Sub: Fela
Scorers: Ariel (3), Thierry, Michel, Morse
With 2 late withdrawals and Fela a late arrival, there were no dilemmas with the starting line up – a 4-5-1 with the intention to focus our play through a midfield 3 of Thierry, Bazz and our young apprentice Morse. Godfathers turned up with a squad of 16 and, based on our previous encounter, we knew that they would be physical and committed but with less firepower than us. The referees failed to show so good behavior was the order of the day. We started well and created good possession but not much service for Ariel. So Ariel took it upon himself to drop deeper to get the ball with our midfield taking turns to arrive late in the opposition’s penalty area. Thierry put us 1-0 up with shot from just outside the box lobbed over the keeper. Godfathers equalized against the run of play when we attempted to play from the back into centre midfield but lost possession and allowed their forward time and space to pick his spot. This was only a minor blip and we scored two more before HT – the first one a tidy finish from Michel after a through ball behind right back and the second from Ariel, a nice strike after a through ball by Morse. The highest drama in the first half was created as we tried to get our only sub on after 25 minutes, only to be told by Fela that he was not ready. Some verbal exchanges followed but the love was eventually restored. In the second half, we continued to have a bit more quality than Godfathers but their large squad meant that they could rotate and keep things fresh. We gave them a glimmer of hope when we failed to press hard enough outside our penalty area and allowed them to get a through ball between right back and centre back for their striker to run on to and slip past Frank. However, Godfathers rarely threatened unless we made mistakes, whereas we looked strong moving forward, with Ariel always a threat, now playing off the left wing with Fela up top. Ariel ran from midfield to finish from outside the box to put us 4-2 up but Godfathers managed a fortunate goal after Frank collected the ball safely, only to then gift it to their striker after scraping his head against the astroturf. The Godfathers timekeeper tried to play an extended second half, with allegations of some of the DB senior pros time-wasting (“game management”) but it was DB who benefited with two gaols in the final 10 minutes – Ariel completing his hat-trick and Morse finishing a move that started from Frank and worked its way forward through central defence and midfield – 6-3 and, all in all, a decent performance against hard working opposition.
MOM – Ariel, always a threat and no doubt looking forward to terrorizing ageing defenders in Orange County.
