Round 7 - 18/5/08

Scorers: Heman, Tom G

Still recovering from a beating 8 days beforehand, we had a satisfying number of players turn up, allowing us to have 2 subs on the bench. However not all players were fit. Heman made a slightly late arrival after running a half marathon in the city and Howard was suffering from cold. Despite this, Chris Hobbs, Andrew, Herman and Scott created a number of wonderful opportunities that just lacked the perfect finish. Simon was playing CB along side Dan, and together the opposition front line were totally ineffective. Pete playing in a new position at left back did well to contain a young winger from doing major damage. Nick tirelessly worked throughout the middle of the park, coming out first with most of the 50-50 challenges and 15mins from half time, Nick cleverly won a free kick just outside the 18 yard box. Heman slotted this beautifully in the top right hand corner for his 4th of the campaign, with the opposition baffled at the attempt.

In the 2nd half, Herb decided to push Pete up into the mids and play a 3 man backline and rotated Little Tom who had a rather boring 1st half with Howard in goals. This turned out to be a genius substitution as he scored with a wonderful through ball to put us 2-0 up. Lachlan played as Tom’s supporting striker with a series of wonderful passes and runs that troubles the tired defence. Epping Eastwood then turned the heat on, requiring Dan, Simon and Tim to put in the hard yards to keep a clean sheet. However this was not to be, a rusty Howie in goals made a slight misjudgement of the ball, and he was beaten by a header. 2-1 the score now. By now the referee’s decisions caused a few of the opposition to abuse him and a few yellow cards were shown. Epping Eastwood kept the pressure up and the ref eventually made a controversial decision awarding a penalty against us for a “handball” in the box. Pressure was on both sides, as the kicker had never taken a penalty before, and Howie still a bit sick. The first attempt went into the top right hand corner, but the ref called it back with Epping Eastwood players crossing the line before the ball was kicked. The second attempt proved breath taking, with the kicker opting for the other side, put it too close to the keeper and Howie guessed correctly and made a brilliant one handed diving save to keep us ahead. A big thank you to the supporters who came and watched and Tim Wilson for a wicked shift in the backline who is also my vote for man of the match.