Match Report

Durham F.C. 5 3 Landsdowne Rangers
 

Goals scored
P.Munyard, T.Bush, G.Rix

Man of the match
D.Rix, C.Viecelli

They say time heals. Was 2 weeks enough to put behind them a poor performance that left players licking their wounds ? Was today going to be the start of a new dawn ? Was Landsdowne going to play the sort of free flowing football that they have been playing pre-season, or was they going to revert back to ooh ooh ooh hot potato syndrome ?

The answer was simple. We were going to attack and cut the opposition open time after time, until their opponents fell like the ancient ruins of Rome.

Well it sounded good for at least 10 seconds Then the truth set in. Today Landsdowne took on Durham with every intention of putting the previous week behind them, however despite an excellent first half that saw Landsdowne completely out play their opponents all they had to offer for their superiority was 1-1 at half time. However, possession and stats don’t win you games, goals do, and Landsdowne learnt that to their cost.

The first half saw Landsdowne rip their opponents apart with wave of attack after attack, only to see many opportunities squandered. Shots went high, they went wide and when eventually on target they had to beat the inform Durham keeper who was having none of it. Their keeper was a one man band and without him we could have been winning 5-0 at half time. However, Landsdowne eventually made their break through when a corner was flicked on by Tony bush, which Farmyard buried, leaving the score 1-0. A score line that was well deserved.

With this in mind Landsdowne continued to press attack after attack, raided the Durham goal, it was as if Landsdowne were trying to break into Fort Knox. However, despite their efforts their seemed no way through when a rash challenge on the inform striker Gavin Mayo gave Landsdowne the opportunity to go 2 in front.

Up stepped the Mayo, the only thing in between him and his second goal of the season was the in form Durham keeper. He begun his run up, the crowd was quiet such was the extent of anticipation in the air, and within a second it felt like a shot wound, their keeper was there again, and with a bang the ball rebounded off the keepers hand like a shot through Landsdowne’s hearts. However, this was not to deter an inform Landsdowne as they continued to attack, hopefully Landsdowne would not live to rue all their missed opportunities.

The first half was near an end when the ref signalled for a corner. All Landsdowne had to do was defend, when a Waymade player leapt in-between two defenders to nod the ball home, leaving the ref 2 more blows on his whistle, the first to signal it’s a goal, the second it’s half time.

Landsdowne trudged off the pitch feeling absolutely robbed and to be fair they were. Unfortunately football can be unkind and today was one of those days. 1-1 and to be frank the best fu*k*ng team deserved more. Much much more. However, as Mr Greaves said “it’s a funny old game”. Well right now it wasn’t funny, it was dam right out of order, surely it could not get worse.

The second half started and Landsdowne had not cleared their heads, everyone abandoned shape like a bunch of kids chasing the ball trying to put right their injustice, when up step the ref for a scandalous decision. When are they going to change the offside rule ? It’s blatantly clear, when that ball is passed forward and their player is behind the last defender its offside, not this stupid new rule off oh!!!! He dragged the defender out of position but its okay, he didn’t touch the ball, therefore he was not interfering. Well F.A. I’ve got news for you, it is interfering. It’s a sh*t rule that premiership teams and international teams suffer from, and today Landsdowne suffered from it too, The player was offside when the ball was played and it’s absolutely sh*t and spoiling the game of millions, but today it ruined the game for 11 hardworking guys playing football for the love of the game and not for money!!!!!!!!

Landsdowne for all their hard work was trailing 2-1 and it was undeserved.

The game continued and Landsdowne were hurting and players were diving in all over the place, concentration had gone and it was inevitable when one more lunge cost Landsdowne leaving the score 3-1.

Landsdowne managed to clear their heads and the Manager - the very special one - made a couple of tactical changes, bringing Magnum to the left side of midfield and the man with no nick name into defence. What could go wrong ?

Well, for starters the ref could deem a push and shove off the ball not a foul and the opposition could then go on and score from it but that wouldn’t happen to us, would it ? How wrong could we be. It did and the score was now 4-1 and the best team by far were loosing by a country mile.

A few more attacks raided down on Durham’s goal but to no avail. Then out of the blue the first rash challenge by Vegas saw a melee where the lads on the field continued with their impeccable behaviour. However, I wish I could say the same about the supporters, they felt the need to come onto the pitch and start pushing one of our players about and shout obscenities and abuse at our right back. However, this fired up the Landsdowne spirit. They could handle bad luck but not bad sportsmanship, they were not about to get involved in an argument, they got up this fine Sunday morning to play football and enjoy it, with that in mind that’s what they continued to do.

Landsdowne carried on attacking their opponents goal when a swift move down the left saw Magnum cut inside, He pulled the trigger and shot, then with the ball 49.9% across the line, Rav managed to get his head to the ball with a powering header from 1cm out. Landsdowne were back in the game the score now 4-2 and all to play for. The goal was scored by Perry bush. It was so tight though the goal its still being decided by the goals panel. For a Rav prospective and view on the goal click here

10 mins left. Could Landsdowne possibly get something out of a game they should be winning anyway ? Well, after a bad tackle Rupret (G.Rix ) scored with a penalty leaving the score now 4-3. Durham were on the back foot. However, a stunning goal from the Durham striker left the final score 5-3, giving the score line a complete inaccurate look.

The final stats read something like Landsdowne 30 shots Durham 7 and the final score 5-3, the only 3 lessons to be learnt today was take your chances, concentrate and don’t dive in.

Hopefully Landsdowne can build on this and put it right in the future. 2 losses in 2 games, only one more slip up and its all over or is it ? The season awaits with anticipation.

Man of the match

Today saw Trigger and Spags earn joint Man of the Match. One was grateful for the award, the other one wasn’t sure, he had to check with his Mrs first!!!!