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Hanno, Saturday 10th March, The Saitama Jets arrived at a reasonably comfortable 2-0 victory over a mediocre Jetro side at Hanno, courtesy of two goals in the space of 5 second half minutes by Nate Gildart and John Rayner.
If, on a day out at the seaside at the start of the season, Madam Zaza and her crystal ball had predicted that with 6 games remaining the newly promoted Saitama Jets would be just one place below current champions Hibs, one would have seriously considered asking for a fortune-telling refund. As it is two consecutive victories have indeed lifted the Jets to within a place of the Hibs, although this state of affairs says more about the Hibs sudden decline than the Jets recent revival, the gap after all is a significant 8 points. Still, compared to a fortnight ago when the Jets were ninth in TML1 and still picking the bones out of a comprehensive 3-1 defeat to TML2 basement club Shane in the FJ Plate, things are looking up
Jetro turned up at Hanno for their crunch relegation battle with just 10 players to find the ref’, a TML newbie, deep in friendly conversation with the Jets foreign players. The teams waited for the 11th man before starting but with two Jets linesman, a foreign ref’ who was happy to listen to and act on advice given by the Jets players, one would have to say that this Jetro team like a challenge!
The game started with Jetro knocking the ball about nicely, probing for gaps in the Saitama rearguard. Some kind of miscommunication was occurring on the Jets’ left flank and Jetro were quick to exploit it, regularly finding space to launch attacks. Fortunately for the Jets, although a side full of good technical players, Jetro possessed little pace or flair and rarely looked like penetrating tellingly into the final third. Their best effort inexplicably came from a Jets defender. A ball played into the edge of the box was well controlled by the striker despite some wild hacks from Eite and Turner which could well have resulted in a penalty, a second striker got involved, bodies fell, the ball ricocheted, falling to Eite, 15 yards out. Instead of launching it to safety the striker turned defender, evidently confused as to what position he was playing, shaped his body and struck a beautiful curling effort towards the far post. Harada, as confused as anyone, reacted magnificently to palm it away at full stretch, leaving the Jets’ captain still seeking his first league goal of the season.
After that rather surreal moment the Jets started to exert control over the game, playing fewer long balls as the midfield were able to keep possession and bring the wide players and forwards into the game. The last 20 minutes was all Saitama and chances came and went, but none were taken before the halftime whistle.
The second half began as had the first half, with Jetro looking lively and the Jets struggling to stay with their men, allowing the opposition to time and space to create, so when Saitama opened the scoring it was slightly against the run of play. Left back Suyama, on as a half time substitute, saw the Jetro defence pushing up a bit to far and played a perfect 30 yard ball into the space behind them for Gildart to run onto and clinically finish past the advancing ‘keeper. 1-0. Just minutes later a Jets’ corner was flicked on by Jack ‘Beanpole’ Faricy and John Rayner made no mistake at the far post, thumping an unstoppable finish past the helpless ‘keeper. 2-0, and that was pretty much it. Jetro finished strongly, knocking ‘keeper Harada about a bit in the last 5 minutes as their enthusiasm got the better of them, but the Jets, despite not playing especially well, never looked like conceding a goal.
Another three points for the Jets which represents another step towards safety. However, as the French victory over Hibs suggests, there will be a few twists and turns in the 5-team relegation battle before the end of the season and so it’s imperative that the Jets continue to work hard and build on the platform the last two victories have offered.
Report by Rob Keating
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