Sean's coolly dispatched penalty and Ant's Thierry Henry-esque stunner led the table-topping Chogs to a high five wins straight on Saturday. The 2-1 victory over the IFS Rangers came in the toughest match of the five so far and the injury list suffered another addition with Shanus suffering a knee injury which ruled him out of the second half on Saturday and will require medical attention this week.
The Rangers started the better of the two sides as the Chogs struggled to get out of their own half in the opening quarter of an hour and should have gone 1-0 up when a ball from the left found their big striker unmarked in front of goal. He headed powerfully but Hector made a superb reaction save to tip it over the bar.
The Chogs dug in at the back and resisted the Rangers, despite the hosts' at times impressive passing game, then struck on a rare break forward. Kev was released down the right and swung a cross towards GJ only for it to be blocked by a defender's raised arm. The ref, who did nothing to hide his friendship with the home team before the game, did the right thing and pointed to the spot.
(GJ also did the right thing after claiming his freak goal a week earlier was a fluke. This time he made no infraction of the strikers' code by claiming he would have easily buried the header if the defender hadn't handled).
Sean, nicknamed "Jagger" because he's always with the (kidney) stones, stepped up and wrongfooted the IFS keeper.
The Rangers responded strongly but couldn't get close to the Chogs goal and as halftime approached the game started turning more and more our way.
A backline reshuffle followed Shane's departure and the midfielders rose to the task of extra work. GD saw more ball than in the first half and and played out the full second period while Ian also fought his ground. Matt, playing through the centre in the absence of Fergus, ran hard and sent the game decisively our way with an excellent ball over the top of the Rangers' defence.
Ant used his height and power to win a heading duel and then stormed away down the left, smacking the ball hard and low into the bottom right corner as the keeper advanced.
The Rangers were walking now but managed to rouse for a final fling. A goal bound shot hit Dean on the arm and the referee gave a penalty with four minutes left.
Hector, who memorably saved the previous penalty he faced last season, went the right way and parried the shot brilliantly only for the referee to order the kick retaken because he hadn't blown the whistle. Hector got his hand on the next attempt as well, but the ball squeezed through.
What followed were a tense couple of minutes. Ian fouled a Rangers player out near the right touchline (then kicked the ball fiercely into Shane's nads) and a dangerous freekick floated in from the right. A Rangers player (yes, he looked Italian) fell down dramatically in the box, screaming like a two year old who has just been woken up in a car at the Scarborough Wombarra Bowlo, and the ref blew his whistle and hurried over. To his eternal credit the ref gave the cheat a yellow card, although he inexplicably let play continue with a corner and the Chogs were hanging onto their three points at the end. The final whistle came five minutes earlier than usual because our opponents were late for the start. Who knows what they might have achieved in that extra time, but anything more than they got would have been an injustice.
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3 comments:
Well done chogs. A game where we may not have looked the best team meant absolutely nothing when we counted the points come the final whistle. Well taken penalty,
relentless defence, and a great finish was all that separated the scorers. Once again we on the right side at the end of the game.
We may not have scored as many goals as other teams but we’ve certainly conceded fewer.
Once again our defence worked overtime as our lack of ball control offered the opposition many attacking opportunities. Dave and Dean would be still feeling the effects of the ball constantly banging against their heads.
Lets hope our physical conditions (hangovers) are all somewhat better than that exhibited last Sunday.
"We may not have scored as many goals"...
bear in mind 23 of Jamberoo's 28 goals have come against Uni, Balgownie and Fernhill and we've yet to play the last two.
Not that we should play as though we expect a cakewalk against those two.
I know a couple of the guys from Fernhill. They've been having trouble fielding 11 players, which may go a way to explaining their results. They've only managed one goal all season.
We definitely should not expect any cakewalks. We conceeded two to Uni.
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