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Misato, Sunday 13th May, With all the razzmatazz and fanfare of the Premiership relegation games, the Kanto Celts arrived at Misato ASG on a warm Sunday afternoon ready to take on France FC in a game which could make all the difference in who stays in the top flight of the TML and who goes down.
With what has started to be a regular occurrence for the Celts this season, last minute pull outs saw the squad diminished from 16 players to 12 with a lack of choices in terms of strikers for the Celts. The French didn’t seem to be in much better shape, with only 12 players themselves.
The game kicked off with France FC taking advantage of the wind in the first half, Celts started confidently enough but it was France FC who had the first clear opportunity when their striker squandered a chance to open the scoring early on. The Celts soon warmed up and took control of the game in midfield, with Derm and Rick playing a holding game, Paddy and Mark attacking on the wings and Henry supporting the lonely Oli up front. The Celts looked the more likely to break through and Henry, Oli and Paddy all had half chances as Celts held firm through the first half with the solid defence of Gavin, Ben, Seamus & Libor thwarting the French attacks.
With the wind at their backs in the 2nd half, Celts pushed forward aggressively to secure the game. The game bounced end to end as the attacking Celts were hit on the break by the frisky French. The France FC keeper was twice called into action to clear his lines as the Celts showed plenty of willingness to attack. The deadlock was eventually broken in the last 15 minutes with a goal worthy of goal of the season, after some good work on the wing from Henry the ball fell to Rick who from the edge of the box rifled a shot into the top right hand corner leaving the France FC keeper with no chance despite a valiant dive.
With the end in sight and Celts smelling the sweet scent of victory, the jitters set in as France FC came forward eager for an equaliser, the following 10 minutes was at time Key Stone Cops esq as the Celts failed to clear the danger in the penalty area, the ball bouncing around the box like a pin ball, Libor contorting his body like stretch Armstrong to make an unbelievable tackle on the edge of the box and Aki having to make a number of heroic saves at the feet of the French strikers.
The final result 0-1 Kanto Celts FC which was a well deserved 3 points as Celts had more of the ball and made clearer cut chances in the game. A good clean fair game well ref’d.
With 3 games to go it’s all very tight at the bottom of the TML, with all of the bottom 4 still in the relegation battle.
Report by Sam Yusef.
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