KEN 1-1 WPH
With the result from the last game, played three weeks ago due to heavy rain, which has been sorely missed in Australia in recent years, we were sitting in fourth place, but only due to a two goal difference.
This was the last game of the scheduled season, so we had to win today, and by a decent margin to guarantee a place in the top four round robin. Pre-match confidence against Kenhurst led to suggestions of a formation change, to go searching for goals.
Somehow I managed to sleep in, missing the first 25 minutes of the first half, and I was informed that we were dominating until letting in an easy one-on-one goal for Kenthurst, the product of some bad ball-watching.
All in all it was a pretty scrappy game, one of those games where the ball just doesn’t seem to come off anyone’s boot nicely. I watched Phil miss a great chance towards the end of the half. After receiving a good ball and running wide of the penalty spot, he tried to kick the ball with the foot that was opposite to his stride, and towards the near post. Unfortunately the ball bobbled and came off his shin.
It drew a lot of criticism from the bench, who felt he should have taken a touch and tried to blast it past the keeper. But it’s what I would have done, and if he’d hit it properly, the keeper would have been beaten, because he was not expecting the early shot. That’s the difference between most players on the team, and a real goal-scorer like Phil.
The second half was mostly our ball game, but that doesn’t mean we really had the ball. Like the first half, no-one seemed to be able to keep the ball under control. In fairness it has been three weeks since they played, and it’s not like I made any contribution to the game from the sideline. I really wish I could have though.
Phil missed another difficult chance, taken on the half-volley from a cross. It drew a great save, and would have been a ripper goal to add to his eight goals thus far. Scott was probably guilty of the easiest chance gone begging, when he had some much time in front of goal, but seemed unsure as to whether the game was still in play.
Finally as time seemed to draw to a close, James made a great run from the left of defence, beating a couple of players on the way. He wasn’t able to make much of the run in the end, but won a corner (another corner, we had almost 20 I think). He then provided the initial cross, which was rebuffed by Kenthurst, but then put in a second cross, the was met by Dan Fisher, who had his first kid just the other day (Congrats!), to bring us level.
With no more time to grab a second goal, we will just have to wait to see how the Putney and Ryde pairing goes. If Ryde can get a full team, we might be in luck. But Putney only need a one nil win to take fourth place from us.
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