Willy Schoppe posted on August 31, 2008 22:15
This catch-up match was scheduled by the AFF five days out without consultation and/or notification to either team’s managers or coaches, not surprisingly the Devilz struggled to get the numbers and had to contact Clendon’s coach directly to negotiate the inclusion of ‘ring-ins’. To his credit the coach did not hesitate to grant the Devilz the inclusion of as many players as it would take to make up a team of ten. Once this and a slightly more forgiving kick-off time rather than the originally scheduled 09;00hrs on a Sunday morning had been agreed upon the Devilz went to ring around their friends and Zippy, JT and Isaac from the formidable Sun Strikers obliged, in fact with Liam and Luke two Strikers had to be turned down at the last minute as a change in circumstance meant that two more than originally available Devilz made it to the Park.
The Devilz and friends arrived at Mountford Park with their tails up, the coaches were a bit apprehensive; many a team has been travelling on a high only to come to the ground with a thud and, sure enough, the first half threatened to provide just that.... The Devilz were doing it tough.... chasing passes, missing tackles, getting turned in one-on-ones and time and again getting found out of position. Surprisingly in between the Devilz did actually turn up in front of the Tiger’s goal but the finishing touch of yesterday was just that, a distant memory.
The Tigers took a 1:0 led into half time, a soft goal in a goalmouth scramble and the Devilz and friends were somewhat subdued during the stern half time address form the coach.
But, with wins like the one achieved on Saturday teams grow in confidence and self belief. Whilst one sensed that the Devilz were struggling mentally and physically to get themselves back to 100% they found a little bit extra in the tank and with Great Spirit they took the game to the Tigers.
The defence pushed up, closing down the gaps in midfield, the attack kept prodding away and slowly but surely the Devilz and friends gained ascendancy in a real sew-saw battle with end-to-end excitement galore. Zippy, in his inimitable way, split the defence and with Lance travelling on his right he advanced, the ball at his tiring feed challenging the goalie one-on-one and he made no mistake, tugging it away in the left hand corner. The score was 1:1 and there were 13 minutes to go and it was all on...
Heart palpitations were a plenty on display, the two opposing coaches were pacing the touchline like some synchronised swimming choreography gone bad. The Clendon CBR adding to the excitement with his calls getting his home coach rather excited. With four minutes to go, the Stinga took off on a 40 meter weaving run, leaving mud flying and Tigers sprawling but he found his match in the box, uncompromising cover defence resulted in somebody’s toe hacking the ball dead and bodies sprawling, the Stinga was out for the count and the ref’s whistle .... did not join into the noises heard from all round the ground... ‘play on, there was nothing in it’ was the call and the Devilz and friends had to go to the bench one more time.
Isaac was brought back on into the centre midfield ‘link’ role and the instructions were clear; win the ball, carry it forward and pick out an unmarked player, text book stuff really. Well, Isaac did just that; with 90 seconds on the clock Isaac won a ball deep in his own half. He took off on a Stinga type run, except he drove down the left wing and drew two thirds of the Tiger’s back three, not content with all the attention he marched straight through the two of them, ball at his feet and then played a perfectly timed ball across the face of the goal. Mini at the end of this dream delivery made no mistakes, with a clatter he put it away and the Tigers were done for it. The score was 2:1 to the Devilz and friends, 45 seconds later the battle was won and the weekend’s yield reads as follows: six points, 7:1 goals, respect, belief and friends aplenty... not a bad score all round.
–Cheers-, W
On another note;
We wish to thank Caltex and Lynda for supporting our team on match-days again this year with plenty of goodies for the player of the day –Thanks Caltex-.
The Devilz’ motto “… the Sky’s the limited!”