Sunnyvale 2 Rovers 0

The Rovers great to start the season came to an abrupt halt against their bogey team, Sunnyvale United at Mayfield Park this Sunday night. After the 100+ temps that engulfed the Rovers match the previous week the Sunday night temp must have been at least 45 degrees cooler.

The Rovers knew that this would be a tough match however they were in a boisterous mood after their 3 consecutive wins. The Rovers were dealt in early blow when their new player Brad Brewer thought it was a good idea to run a ½ marathon the morning of the game and he pulled up lame before kick-off. The Rovers then received a further blow when their star man of the 2010-11 seasons was declared ineligible when his pass could not be found. There was a panic on the sides as Jose’s card was missing, only to discover, at the end of the match when the refs handed back the player passes that they in fact had the pass! How this can happen is beyond me.

The Rovers started off in the familiar formation with unfamiliar people playing in certain roles. Kieran and Mark started up front for the Rovers, both of them suffering early nose bleeds because they were so high up the pitch. In saying that the Rovers started off the better team and this continued throughout the half. Some of the Rovers passing were fantastic and this must not be forgotten in their next game. The Rovers came close when Boride’s speculative cross/shot hit the cross bar but in fairness the shot was always going over. After some more good play by Kieran the ball fell onto the head of Colin who didn’t make great contact. Normally you would have backed Colin to score but this chance went begging. The Rovers next best chance came when Brodie played in a ball to Mike Davis who also didn’t make great contact with the ball, although who knows if the goal would have stood as the assistant ref had his flag up in the air.

Eosin/Mike/Kieran was doing a great job of spreading the ball around the field with the duo of Regale/Jonathan doing another fantastic job in the middle of defense. Calve and Lawton were also playing very intelligent balls to the wide men, it was good stuff. Of course Sunnyvale were a threat, they always are, and they were finding some joy with their best player on the ball down their right wing.

A few times they got behind us but their pull back where either hit wide or they were blocked off by the defense efforts of the back 5. The Rovers got another great chance to take the lead when a Sunnyvale player handled the ball, after a Brodie cross, just outside the box. Eoin took the kick but the ball was hit over the top.

I’m not sure why but the ref slowly started to lose control of this match, probably with the fact that he was on island in the middle of the park. His assistant on the near side was a cross between a human and a mouse, not uttering a single word throughout proceedings. Also as the other lino didn’t show he was forced into asking Jeff Spicilo of Fast Time at Ridgemont High to run the line for him. Gibbsy was fouled in the middle of the field and the ball fell to Brodie and he unbelievable blew up for a kick, it was one of the clearest cases of advantage someone could ever see. To the ref’s credit, he did apologize for this gaff later in the match.

Colin was booked for “time-wasting” in the first half, which is ironic considering the match official kicked off 15 minutes late, with only one match ball. It was maybe a warning at best, the ball rolled about two feet away. Moments later the Sunnyvale full back booted the ball against the fence in anger, in front of both the lino and the ref, no action was taken….. This yellow card picked up by Colin would prove to be a key moment in the match.

The rovers stated the second half with Brodie and Gibbs on the bench and Sunnyvale started brightly. They had a great chance to take the lead from just outside of the 6 yard box but they player got the shot horrible wrong and it sailed over. In minute 55 with the game ebbing towards a 0-0 the man in the middle decided to influence proceedings. The ball rolled out of bounds, the Sunnyvale right back, who is a complete toss pot, picked up the ball ran about 8-10 yards up the line, from where the throw in should have been taken from and threw the ball at Colin. He then ran onto the pitch and did some sort of a forearm shiv to Colin. The ref walked over, everyone inside the ground thought the right back was going to get his marching orders, but the ref somehow booked Colin, and showed him the red for two yellows. Sunnyvale went unpunished. Brodie was also booked for dissent in the aftermath. After this moment Sunnyvale dominated the proceeding and went ahead when their shot struck the post and fell to the Sunnyvale right winger, his shot going past ben at the near post. They increased their lead further after a great cross found an unmarked player three yards from goal, he couldn’t miss. Mark almost got the Rovers back in it after some good play by Cameron and Brodie but his shot went wide.

The Ref wasn’t done, awarding a late pk to Sunnyvale, after the player got off his shot, blowing up for a foul. The ref said to me I played and advantage and then blew it back up, so in saying that he basically gave Sunnyvale two excellent chances to score. It was a horrific decision. Lawton was having a good physical game on the left side and he clattered into the right back, getting booked for his troubles. He was lucky not to see a second yellow moment later when he put in a hard tackle as the Sunnyvale player nipped in. These were probably the only two hard tackles in the game!

The match petered out with Sunnyvale in command, 80 minutes played and Sunnyvale winning 2-0.


Man of the Match; Jon Regala, second Kieran
Ref: Out of his depth, not helped by the situation
Field: Like playing pin ball