2004 ESSDA PELE Sunday 30th March 2014 11:00 am kick off at Clermiston Hutchison Vale v Longniddry Villa. A lovely Mothers Day present of a cold, misty and windy visit to Clermiston Public Park for our latest Pele League game. Today we were up against Hutchie Vale who are another team packed with players from pro teams. The game was played on what is loosely described as a football pitch, it had lines and goals but a double incline from our left to right and almost 2 metres from touchline to touchline. Im not sure how we can expect our footballers to be able to play on such a set-up, Im sure Jeremy Clarkson would have made comment about the slopes too! With Cammy serving the final part of his enforced ban for rising to the bait last week we started with Lance (GK because hes a goalie), Jack (RB), Lewis (CB), Adam (LB) Ethan and Murray (CM) Josh (CF) with Mikey joining Cammy as first subs. Playing uphill the game started very brightly with Josh causing Hutchies defence all sorts of problems, Ethan and Murray were covering every bit of bumpy grass and the defence not allowing the opposition any clear sight of goal. Like Windsor last week Hutchie had one very talented player in their midfield who was conducting his teams forays at every opportunity. A great ball from Jack found Josh wide on the right and his angled cross found Murray in the middle of the goal and his first time shot seemed goal bound until the goalie pulled off a great save. Villa were on top now and 2 more difficult chances went narrowly past before Josh and Ethan teamed up to play Murray in on goal, a sweet left foot drag back and turn saw the open goal and a left foot cut placed the ball just over the line before the despairing defender blasted it into the net. Like any good striker Murray will definitely claim the goal 1- 0 Villa. The game restarted with Hutchie taking advantage of shooting down the 1 in 10 slope Lewis dropped back to prevent the attempted through ball and Adam and Jack pushed up to close the attacking formation down. Another shot from Murray from just outside the box went narrowly past and was to prove costly as we stood off the Hutchie midfield too much and allowed the aforementioned best player the room to plant an unstoppable dipping shot over Lances head. 1-1 with Hutchies first shot on target but they were to produce several more efforts on goal as the half progressed. Cammy replaced Murray in midfield and shortly after that Ethan got a rap on the ankle and Lewis slotted into midfield with The Mikey at CB. Adam had his work cut out as he regularly had 2 players bearing down on him but every time the Hutchie players were given room it was far enough away from goal. Then a ball through our middle seemed destined to be met by the onrushing Vale striker until both Jack and Mikey caught him and Jack took the ball off his toes with a brilliantly timed tackle. Lances handling was near perfect and he is beginning to understand his angles far more this helps the defence out as they have confidence in his abilities. Josh was the latest player to be trodden on and left the pitch with only a couple of minutes left Ethan returned and we very comfortably saw the game to the whistle HT 1-1 The second half had us playing down the runaway incline with Jack and Josh taking a well earned rest. The game now was being played mostly in midfield where Ethan and Cammy were making nuisances of themselves by not allowing the Hutchie players any time on the ball. at least two opportunities were spoiled by the surface as Ethan stole the ball but couldnt beat the last bobble. But then 3rd time lucky Ethan robbed the last defender as hutchie tried too much fancy stuff and raced away drawing the goalie out planting the ball easily past him for a great individual goal 2-1 Villa and well deserved indeed. Now ive not mentioned the ref yet. A newly qualified SFA kitted lad was taking control of the game and trying to be as fair minded while allowing the game to flow, good idea but not on this pitch or between two very well matched teams both who can put themselves about. Playing advantage at every opportunity only caused the youngsters to misinterpret what was being allowed this started to cause problems as Hutchie chased the equaliser. The tackles that were being ignored earlier were now being pulled up and the Villa players felt that they were not getting their fair share of the decisions. Ethan broke free again and some magical footwork saw him face the goalie once again this time his outside of the right foot foot trick saw the ball clip the outside of the post. That would have killed the game but Hutchie seized on the miss and pushed Villa back, but even if they did get past our defence they still had Mr Safe Hands himself to beat and Lance pulled of 5 excellent saves. Lewis chased everything in the middle and Mikey and Adam saw off one Hutchie player who broke through with clever cover play.Our 3rd player to be injured was Jack who took a real sore one in a tackle (or was it off the ball?) as we looked to finished the game without further injury Murray (not for the only time in the game) took retribution on a Hutchie player after they had clearly fouled Josh. This was the type of incident that could have been avoided with a stricter and lets be honest more Mr Whiteoak style referee.the game went into injury time which only benefited Hutchie as another 2 dubious decisions gave them excellent pitch position however our whole team were not going to be denied their victory and never let Hutchie have another sniff at our goal. the full-time whistle blew and The Villa boys took great delight in celebrating a fantastic victory at the home a great Club. Well done Stevie and David who kept the team in shape and provided clear instructions as they sought to neutralise the Hutchies best players. A big crowd of 32 saw this game which would have benefitted from a half decent surface. Really is this the best that Edinburgh Leisure can offer? It makes Longniddry Park look like Hampden. Final score Hutchison Vale 1 Longniddry Villa 2. Murray and Ethan.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 13:16:07 +0000
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