We exit the Cup with 10 goal thriller

May 17, 2010 on 3:51 am | In MATCH REPORTS | Comments Off

Men’s South/West Cup
By coach Gary Leigh
For the second week on the trot Football Margaret River were involved in another 10 goal thriller, only this time we were on the receiving end of a 7-3 score line.

Playing away in Busselton against our local rivals, with them placed firmly at the top of the South/West Premier League ladder was always going to be a difficult encounter.

What made my job and the team chances of winning even harder was not being made aware of players not being available only minutes before kick-off and a couple of players thinking the start time was 3pm as per league games.

Subsequently we started the game with 3 players that had already played full games in the reserves match with no substitutes on the bench.

These issues threw my plans into disarray and this disorganisation was partly the reason that we conceded four early goals.

Shogo Maida was switched to middle of defence; this gave our back line a more solid look about it and Simon Corke began to weave his magic in midfield.

The River gradually got more and more into the game and at one stage, with the score at 5-3, Alex Costa nearly notched his second of the day at the near post, which would have made the last 30 minutes very interesting.

Tom Panarello hit a superb volley from 30 metres out and Redar Saber’s shot from distance both brought wonderful saves from the young Busselton goalie, but we could not reduce the deficit any further.

A couple of late goals for Busselton, one being a penalty “again”, put paid to any chance of us taking any further part in this cup competition.

Once again the opposition gave us credit for the way we played the game and our skill level, “its nice, but I would like a not-so-thrilling 1-0 or 2-1 victory occasionally”.

Glenn Skyrme took his chances well and scored a couple of goals.

But today there was one guy that stood out from the crowd, Ned Allington one of those players that had already played a great game for the reserves, wins my player of the match award. Even cramping up on a couple of occasions, he had the most remarkable game I have ever seen this young lad play.

The reserves also lost in a close game 2-0. Adrian Nathanieisz and Gordon Becker both had great games and helped out for the league team, thanks.