ECCLESALL RANGERS v ABBEY LANE JFC. - 1/2/09

[Craig Millward]

ECCLESALL RANGERS v ABBEY LANE JFC. - 1/2/09

ECCLESALL RANGERS (4) v ABBEY LANE JFC. (3)
GOALSCORERS -JACK CHARLESWORTH, KANE TORPEY, WILL MALLINSON
MAN OF THE MATCH AWARD -JORDAN MARPLES-DOUGLAS


MATCH REPORT

Abbey Lane travelled to Ecclesall Rangers in what was a must win game for Abbey Lane if we wanted to keep our promotion chances alight.
We got off to a bad start before the game started with two players missing with injury, and to compound matters, with only five minutes on the clock, our keeper was carried off the pitch with a seriously broken nose and a gash down the side, after making an excellent save, he was caught with a trailing foot of an Ecclesall player.
With the game at 1-0 to Ecclesall at this point, it was the last thing we needed. In stepped our trusted left winger JORDAN MARPLES-DOUGLAS to deputise between the sticks once again.
With 15 minutes gone Abbey Lane forced the equaliser, some great passing saw CHARLESWORTH through on goal, his first shot was saved but the follow up fired into the back of the net. With in 5 minutes of the equaliser, Abbey Lane found themselves 2-1 down. The fluency of the passing didn't seem to be there, the players looked a little out of sorts, whether it was the sight of our keeper in some serious distress with his injury that had knocked the players, i don't know, but they didn't seem as hungry for the game after that point.

With score at 2-1 at half time, we had a mountain to climb to try and get the lads back on track.
The second half kicked off, and disaster struck on 5 minutes when Ecclesall extended their lead to make it 3-1. Abbey Lane seemed to be struggling to string the passes together, and seemed to be struggling to clear their own half. The game looked all over as a competition when Ecclesall took a 4-1 lead, the lads looked lost, they didn't seem to be able to read the game, as time after time Ecclesall broke through the defence with a long ball over the top.
With twenty minutes of the half gone, Abbey Lane suddenly sprung in to life, and a ball through the Ecclesall defence saw MALLINSON nip in and poke the ball home to make it 4-2. the heads were now up, and three minutes later Abbey Lane forced another goal. This time it was the turn of TORPEY, he collected the ball, run at the defence and shot the ball into the keepers bottom left hand corner to make it 4-3. Abbey Lane battled to gain the equaliser, but it wasn't to be, as Ecclesall desperately hung on, trying to waste time by holding the ball in the corner.

This wasn't the best Sunday we have had, but with 2 players injured, one player rushed off to hospital with a badly broken nose and a serious split down the side, there is probably some credit to give to the lads for the fight back. This definately was our worst performance of the season, and we have really got to start and get things right.
I would really like to compliment the referee at this game, a referee i have heard about, but have never had officiate one of our games. Mr Dilks was excellent in my eyes, his decisions were fair, he was in total control of the game at all times, and also did his best to let the game run. Particularly after the farce we had last week away to Ecclesall Juniors, it was welcoming to have a compitent refere today.