Trabia 1 Rovers 2

Sunday Night football was back for the Rovers Soccer Club as they battled Trabia FC at 8:15 on the turf at Mayfield Park. The Rovers had won 2 of their first 3 matches and the league seems to be pretty even this year with Sporting seeming to be the best team so far. The rovers needed a result in the match to keep pace with the rest of the league.
The Rovers were missing Jonathan, you most have been very disappointed to have to wait an additional weak to make up for that howler last week, in an otherwise very impressive performance. Joe Calvey was also out with a combination of shin and ciggy splints. Joe giving up his right back slot to the versatile Cameron. In the middle Jon and Erik with Curt flanking them on the left. Across the middle Kieran and the manager started off with Eoin going to bench after showing up two minutes prior to kick off (apparently he forgot to set his alarm for the p.m kick off). Across the middle the spanish jose, with colin and brodie on the flanks. Asian Jonathan was asked to lead the line.
The Rovers started off very strong as the game was played at a frantic pace. This pitch is small so neither time had any time on the ball but the best chance in the opening stages fell to Asian Jonathan who sliced his chance horribly wide, after a clever build up play by Mark and Jose. The Gaffer was winning every challenge in the middle of the park and Colin was heavily involved in the attack with the right wing pretty much being ignored. Jose had many chances to play the ball wide but the little spaniard kept choosing the wrong ball. Jonathan had a chance with a free kick but it struck the wall.
Paulie, who thought the kick of was 8:30,showed up just at kick off at replaced Jonathan up top. Jonathan did well but Paulie's running off the ball changed the game. It was pretty much all one way traffic at this point except when Erik brought down their player 25 yards from goal.The free kick came to nothing but it was a scare for Rovers. Larson was booked for his troubles. The break though came around the 30 minute mark. Eoin had a wide open Brodie on the right but his ball was hit into the air and Brodie headed it on into the danger area. Paulie kept going and the Trabia big defender head the ball past the advancing keeper. The ball was rolling into an empty net but Paulie was on-hand to make sure it had no problems going in. He will never have an easier goal. The Rovers continued to dominate the half with out creating to many chances. Probably the best chance came from well worked short corner between Brodie and Paulie, with the ex manager unlucky to score. The best chance of the half for Trabia is when Jon was judged to have obstructed a Trabia player in the box, the resulting fee kick was headed over the ball from 5 yards. A better header of the ball would have scored
At half-time Brodie and Kieran came off and Jonathan and Colin came back on the flanks. 5 minutes into the half, with Senior Brodie telling Jose to get into the box, the little Spaniard did just that and kidded the big Trabia full back. The tackle came in, the ref was well placed, and the player clipped Jose's feet not getting the ball, a stone wall pk somehow the ref yelled play on. A few moments later the came changed when a clear hand ball by Trabia was not seen, with the Rovers stopping in the middle of the field for a split second. A wonderful through ball was played and the bearded man in the attack took on Ben and took his goal well. Somehow the Rovers had managed to throw away their commanding position.
Brodie and Kieran entered the game with 25 minutes to go and immediately Brodie changed the game with his mouth rather then his boots. Their number 10 did about 3 Ronaldo step overs and Brodie kicked the ball away from him. Brodie commented that he is not going by him and the #10 took exception. He pushed Brodie over 3 different times, with the third one being seen by the Ref. The ref had no hesitation and showed him a straight red card. Trabia was down to 10 men. With 10 to go Jon Regala played a high ball into Brodie's head. His flick on found the always running Paulie. The goalie came out and Paulie went round him. With the goalie out of his goal Paulie brought the ball back onto his left foot and chipped the ball towards the goal. Their was a bit of scramble with Colin claiming the goal but this match reporter did not see who got the final touch so Paulie is getting the goal. The Rovers saw out the last 10 minutes and should have increased their lead with Colin having some great chances to play in Paulie but the final ball did not quite come off. Off the pub at 1015 on a Sunday night with the third win out of four
MOM: The Gaffer..unlucky for Paulie not to get but Mark was excellent minus his ongoing conversation with the ref. His tackling was first rate.
REF: Two mind boggling restarts and a clear missed pk but he got the red card correct
pitch. fast and small.
Quote of the day: Larson, "we are regular ambassadors of good will"