Atlantic Stars : Match Report v. Maples & Calder on 28th Jan 2009

2009-02-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

Atlantic Star 6 Maples & Calder 2

Dickens 2
Maguire
Marler
Glasgow
Fraser

Murray
Leach
Carlowe
Glasgow
Dickens
Maguire
Fraser
Holian
Marler
Jack
Coen

The team camaraderie of the previous week quickly disappeared as a disjointed Atlantic Star stuttered to a victory over a poor opposition.

Confidence was high going into the game and everybody looked up for a strong performance. With only 6 players Maples were hopefully going to tire quickly against the eleven string squad of Star. As Holian wanted to concentrate more on actually lasting for more than a couple of minutes he gave the responsibility of substitution rotation to Heffernan who had a slight toe ache and didn’t want to risk it. The responsibility took its toll on the youngster, and he’s going to need a lot more experience with his youth team before he gets to make the step up to professional management.

It was a patient start by the red and whites as they stroked the ball around but without putting Maples under too much pressure. As Maples were reduced to five men for structure violation, Star finally took full advantage as Dickens broke down the left and scored the opening goal.

If Star thought it was going to be all their own way it wasn’t to be as some lax defending allowed Maples to pull a goal back from the right hand side. The possession count however led to Star regaining the lead, this time Maguire finding the back of the net.

A slip on the ground by Fraser led to a harsh yellow card by the referee against the club chairman and Star were now the side to surrender a goal with reduced numbers. Losing possession on the left, the Maples midfielder played the ball on to the troublesome number 15, who had showed some neat touches throughout the half, and he fired the ball past the helpless Murray. Strangely from the restart the ball was played back to Holian who together with Jack and Murray just played the ball around between them with no challenge. Maples for some reason thought this was a terrible offence and were crying for a penalty or some kind of sanction. Clearly none of these guys had actually played football before and Star were to play out the remainder of the two minute penalty without having to move from the edge of their box.

Dickens gave Star the lead for the third time just before the half, and is beginning to show the form he used to display for Caybrew All-Stars.

Some cross words were banded around at half time about the rotating subs and Heffernan feeling the pressure started making changes after only 90 seconds of the second half. Skipper Glasgow looking the most bemused as he made way.

Star controlled the second half much the way they had in the first, despite still looking a little disorganized at times. Marler was to extend the lead to two goals for the first time in the game and that was to kill off any challenge from the wearied opposition. It was good for all to see the Canadian striker back amongst the goals and could he be saving his best for the right time in the season.

Glasgow was to extend the lead further with the fifth goal. In a desperate attempt to get something out of the game, Maples switched to a strange formation with the number 15 playing as far forward as possible while the goalkeeper hurled long balls towards him. While he may have had space in the first half, close marking by the Star defenders started to unsettle the player, and on a number of occasions he was practically in tears begging for some leniency from the referee. He wasn’t getting much sympathy from Holian and Leach who together were enjoying taunting him and putting him off his game.

Meanwhile at the other end Fraser converted a bobbling ball which somehow found its way in sneaking through the goalkeeper’s hands. The keeper had up until that point pulled off some excellent saves and he was by far man of the match for the opposition. Maguire wanted to make a game of it and played in the Maples forward with a great through ball, but he was off his game so much at that point he couldn’t beat Murray who saved well.

So finally Atlantic Star are back to winning ways but the team will need to be a lot more unified for the next couple of games as the season hots up against Old Boys and Coconut Joes.