Away v Bealonians 19/09/09 - Match report

OMFC win 2 - 1 (HT 0 - 0)

After winning division 6 north last season and gaining promotion to 5 north, we started our season with a difficuly game against Bealonians who are a stong club, with their 1st XI winning the Premier last season.

We started the game strongly with a 4-5-1 formation, and for the first 20 minutes played some good football, leaving tthe Bealonians players chasing shadows, and had a couple of chances to take the lead with Chris Nicolaou coming close. As the first half went on, we started to find it difficult to break down their defence who were physical and organised. They did not really pose a threat to our goal other than by a few long balls that were dealt with comfortably by our back 4. The half finished goaless, although we were by far the better side.

The second half started much like the end of the first with us having most of the possession but not being able to break down their defence. The game changed 15 minutes into the first half when we changed our formation to 4-4-2, by pairing Richard Agostini up front with Chris Nicolaou. About 2 minutes after the change, and against the run of play, they had an attack and long range shot beat Lewis Pontin to give Bealonians the lead. Great change eh?

Straight from the kick off we attacked down the left hand side with Sean Gallagher crossing the ball for Chris Nicolaou to volley the ball straight into the net, 1 - 1.

With 25 minutes to go, Tom Hannington had to come off injured, with Carl Stapleton taking his place.

We continuied to press forward looking for the winner and with 20 minutes to go a cross from the right hand side saw Richard Agostini put the ball in the back of the net. For some reason the ref saw it as offside and dissallowed the goal. Big mistake by the ref.

We continued to press forward and got our reward with Eamon Meaney scoring from close range 2 - 1.

Adam Barrett came on for Chris Bradley to sure up our midfield with about 10 minuted to go.

Another cross from the right saw Richard head the ball into the net, only for the ref to dissallow it for a push.

With 2 minutes to go Eamon disputed a free kick and was given a yellow card by the referee. From the free kick he was given a second yellow card and sent off for not being 10 yards from the kick. Not very clever!

The final whistle then went with a good 3 points earned.

Team and player ratings:

Louis Pontin 7 Didn't have a lot to do.
Andy Blackburn 7 Solid at the back and organised well
Aaron Wilson 7 Also solid and well organised
Sean Gallagher 7 Played out of position and did well when controlled
Ben O'Neil 7 Good solid performance
Sonny Davis 9 Dont know how he beats players in slow motion. Great performace
Chris Bradley 7 As committed as ever and gave everything
Eamon Meaney 8 Was all over the pitch getting tackles in. Shame about last 2 mins
Tom Hannington 7 Good performance even though must have been tired from travelling
Richard Agostini 7 Played well. Was better when moved upfront
Chris Nicolaou 7 Good movement and good goal
Carl Stapleton 7 Came on and did very well
Adam Barrett 7 Didn't have time to shine but did the job he was asked

Man of the Match: Sonny Davis

Managers half time talk: shit (where were my assistants)

If I have spelt names wrong, I appologise as I can only get the Greek ones right.

Next game away to Suttonians AFA Cup.

Please post you comments.

John