Young Guns 1 DBFC 4
Venue: Ma on Shan Recreation Ground
Date: 24 October 2015 —– KO @ 4:30 pm
Squad: Gianluca, Zin, David (Captain), Kieran D, Ben, Alessio, Phil, Jonny, Warren, Tony, Scotty H, Sahil, Rafa, Matt O, Phil.
Scorers: Tony x 2, Jamie and Zin.
The team came to this first round cup game knowing that a very strong squad had been assembled despite the absence of many veterans’ team players who had been counted on massively in the past few weeks. Young Rollinson, taking over from his absentee father (presumed on a beach in Thailand listening to match commentary on a transistor radio) organised arrangements for this cup game and rounded up the troops diligently.
Three taxis were expertly ordered and three taxis duly arrived. The DBFC team was dispatched onwards to Ma On Shan in happy spirits; well mostly, as a show of disappointment came over Mr. Kieran Donnelly once he realised that Ma On Shan was next to Shatin and let know with his imitable banter – “you have got to be Shatin-ing me because that is miles away”. Thirty five minutes later we arrived safely, no time for Kieran to eat a poke of pieces; it was a wee donner down the road.
The team was quickly changed and Matt Z (out through injury and taking head coach duties for this match) took the warm-up. Whilst the majority of the squad were focused while warming-up, Ben and Matt O distracted with their chit-chatting about the three day ‘bender’ they had just been on. Verses such as “Yeah maaate, it was looooose”, “Yeah mate, pulled like 6 girls”; “yeah mate, she was older than 12” serenaded the DBFC team as they were put through their paces.
Matt Z got the players together after the warm up and announced the starting 11. Gianluca in goal, Ben at left back, Zin at right back with Kieran and David as CBs. Warren and Tony playing in the centre of midfield with Scotty and Jonny on the left and right wings respectively. Rafa played in the hole and Matt O as the lone striker. The team talk reiterated the requirements of previous weeks; play the ball out from the backs and encourage communication through-out the team.
The game started brightly with DBFC managing to get many passes out to Scotty and Jonny on the wings. Despite Young Guns seeing a lot of the ball, they weren’t really doing much with it. The referee was proving to be a shocker as usual, with decision after decision going against DBFC. Warren and Jonny were both feeling particularly aggrieved at getting penalised when cleanly winning the ball. Young Guns continued to dominate possession and won several corners, but DBFC were always a danger on the counter-attack. It was from a Young Guns’ corner that DBFC capitalised; the ball was headed clear by Kieran and broke out to Tony near the half way line – Tony had one direction in his mind and proceeded to skin 5 Young Gun players before calmly slotting the ball into the Young gun’s Goal to the right of a diving keeper.
Matt Z was using the rolling subs to great effect, with Alessio, Zin, Jonny, Scott and Sahil all rotating regularly to different positions around the pitch in order to maintain a high tempo. This rotation strategy nearly lead to a second goal when fresh on Sahil broke free after an excellent diagonal ball from either Jonny put him one on one with the Young Guns’ keeper. Unfortunately Sahil’s shot wasn’t the best.
DBFC were now dominating the game, but Young Guns were always a danger with through balls from their midfield. This was to be DBFC’s undoing; a through ball broke to a Young Guns’ player in the DBFC box and Alessio’s attempt to tackle ended with tangled legs and the referee awarding a clear penalty. However, there is the difficult task of scoring passed Gianluca that to the Young Guns dismay they discovered when he pulled off an excellent penalty save to keep the score at 1-0 for DBFC going into half time.
The half time team talk concentrated on the need for better communication and making sure that we win the second phase ball from defensive headers. Kieran pointed out that the defence had to narrow the gap with the midfield in order to stop the Young Guns’ main tactic of putting balls over the top.
The second half started well and following the general observation of the first half that the Young Guns’ keeper was below average ability (awful) DBFC were intent on more shots at goal. Zin definitely set his cross hairs on the Young Guns’ goal for this second half and scored a magnificent goal when his 30 yard shot cannoned off the cross bar, which he followed up on (a tactic he undoubtedly teaches to all his football students) and volleyed the rebound past the Young Guns’ keeper. Two goals for DBFC soon became three when a cross from the right was spilled by the Young Gun’s keeper for Rafa to collect at the edge of the YG box and dribble past two YG defenders received before calmly slotting the ball into the bottom corner for an excellent taken goal. DBFC were now 3 – 0 up and cruising.
Nevertheless, Young Guns continued to press as the second half wore on and they managed to get a goal from a corner, courtesy of Gianluca punching the ball into his own net. This was definitely a little weird moment from the DBFC keeper, but a series of top class saves throughout the game more than made up for this rare error (moment of Italian madness?).
DBFC made their remaining subs. Phil Collins came on at centre back to take on duties that were proving difficult throughout the game. Phil coped well and followed on from his debut last week in getting more game time / experience under his belt (readying him for a much more significant role in this vital position as the season roll on). Matt Z was about to bring Ben back on at right back before noticing his absence from the side-lines. Ben had requested to come off at half time so he could deposit a package in the toilet but after 15 minutes missing had not reappeared despite the best efforts of the two Imodium capsules he took before the game. When you gotta go, you gotta go – in Ben’s case this was for 20 minutes of the second half —— a DBFC record for the longest in-game dump – a title he will hold for many years I am sure.
Young Guns were still attacking and for 10 or so minutes had the upper hand with a series of corners. Their efforts were in vain however, when Tony took the ball on the edge of the Young Guns’ 18 yard box and put his laces through it to put DBFC 4-1 up. This was another excellent bit of play from the DBFC CM, who had been pulling the game-strings and controlling the entire midfield.
And that’s how it all ended – an excellent Cup win over one of the teams challenging for this seasons league title and we are now through to the second round of the Legal League Cup.
Back at the Pier Bar to discuss the match and for Gazza to join straight off the plane from Thailand to buy victory drinks and congratulate the boys with a firm handshake and a smack on the buttocks.
Man of the Match: Kieran Donnelly was in with a shout for this honour for expertly marshalling the defence; He is excellent communicator by being loud throughout the game (although sometime his Glaswegian is barely understandable) and is as cool as a cucumber on the ball. This week however, the honour has to go to Tony at the heart of the mid-field for displaying an excellent controlled performance and capping it all with two great goals.
Dick of the Day: Several contenders as usual. If there was a ‘Dicks of the day’ award, it would definitely go to the “banter duo” of Jonny Haines and Scotty Holmes. They look the same, they sound the same, they laugh at each other’s jokes – it is quite cute really. Fortunately for them, the award can only go to one person – and that person is Ben Roberts for the longest in-game dump in the history of DBFC. Well done Ben!
Match Reporter: Reported by David edited by Gazza
