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Hachioji Park, Sunday 8th April, Saitama Jets extended their excellent record against Kanto Celts with goals from John Rayner and Nate Gildart to all but secure their place in TML1 for next season.
The Jets lined up against the Celts knowing that victory would surely be enough to make their final two games of the season academic. The Jets have grown into TML1 as the season has progressed and recently have learnt how to win games that would have been lost at the start of the season.
The first thing that strikes one about the Celts is how big they are, a fact that made the Jets first goal something of a surprise, coming as it did from a corner. The first 20 minutes were fairly even with both sides looking lively up-front, but it was the Jets who took advantage of one of a number of corners they forced in this period. Tomo Kobayashi, who hasn’t had that much playing time recently and was on as an early sub, flashed in one his trademark set-pieces and centre-half John Rayner pounced on a flick on to volley home expertly for his second of the season. 1-0 Jets.
The Celts probably felt somewhat hard done by to be one down and responded by dominating the latter part of the half without creating anything clear cut. Their best chance had come just prior to the opening goal when Kim, the smaller of their two strikers, both of whom were constant pests to the Jets’ back four, broke free of the last defender, rounded the keeper, but went too wide and thus allowed Joe Selby to get back and clear off the line.
The second half started as the first half ended, with the Celts pressing the Jets back, but still not able to open up a stubborn Saitama defence. Having seen the scenes from Italy midweek, of Italian riot police bashing up the English, one might have thought that Italians would be partial to a bit of physical contact. Not this ref! There probably isn’t a computer big enough to calculate how many free-kicks he gave the Celts, but it seemed like every tackle was judged as a foul. Certainly some were, but an equal number were surely not and there was some discussion on the touch-line about this between the two camps, all fairly good-natured considering what was at stake. Despite their physical size and the sheer volume of free-kicks awarded around the Jets’ area, the Celts couldn’t make them count and far too many were reminiscent of ‘two-point conversions’ to truly worry Harada in the Jets’ goal.
As the half wore on, the Jets, having blunted the Celts attack, began to create. Jack Faricy continued to win tackles and headers and find the wide midfielders with good passes, whilst his central midfield partner, Kobayashi, made light of his advancing years and showed what a good technical player he is with numerous penetrating first-time balls. A headed flick in the middle of the park put Shimizu away and the little striker should have made it two as he sped away from the Celts defence, but with just the ‘keeper to beat he screwed his shot wide when it looked easier to score. But the second goal was not far off. Minutes later Nate Gildart beat the offside trap on the left hand side, cut inside a defender and into the area and made a difficult finish look like the easiest thing in the world to record his fifth goal in as many games. 2-0 Jets.
The Celts had no choice but to throw caution to the wind and desperately pressed forward, but to no avail. Playing so far up the field left huge gaps between the goalkeeper and defence which the Jets exploited with monotonous regularity. Loren, Gildart and Shimizu all got in behind the Celts backline in this closing period and the Jets should have added some gloss to the scoreline but were somewhat profligate. The closest they came was when Gildart raced clear on the right and unselfishly squared the ball to Loren who, from 8 yards, hit a first time screamer that cannoned off the connection of post and bar, but didn’t matter by this stage as the game was effectively already won.
The Jets can now relax and enjoy their final two games knowing that they will be playing in TML1 next season. As for the Celts, it’s hard to know what to say, they’re good lads and a decent side with some outstanding players both in defence and attack, but despite promising much they failed to deliver. Looking at the table they are certainly in trouble, but with games in hand on their rivals all is not lost, but they need to start winning games sooner rather than later. The tail end of the season will certainly be interesting with any two from the bottom four still capable of saving themselves.
Report by Rob Keating
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