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Hachioji Park, Saturday 22nd September,
The Geckoes had their biggest league win for two seasons with a convincing 4-1 win over Sala in a repeat of the Footy Japan Cup Final.. The game started with the Geckoes kicking off and after a combination of errors Sala had the first corner of the game. Not the start that we had in mind, especially after Rob had highlighted Sala’s strength at set-pieces in the team talk and 15 seconds later the Geckoes were defending one.
The Geckoes dealt with the corner and that was pretty much Sala’s last touch for the next 15 minutes as the Geckoes totally dominated. With new signings Jonathan Smith and Andy Gill taking control of the game, wave after wave of Geckoes pressure resulted in Sid Lloyd making numerous saves, shots were cleared off the line and Andy Gill hit the post after going past three Sala defenders and it was only a matter of time before the Geckoes took the lead. The goal came halfway through the first half from a Simon Bromwell corner. Sid punched the cross but only back out to Brommie who squared the ball back in to Jonathan Smith and he hammered the ball home from the edge of the box to give the Geckoes a deserved lead.
For the remainder of the half, Geckoes allowed Sala to get back into the game but due to some solid defending the Geckoes held firm to half-time.
Strong words were spoken during the break and a reshuffle enabled the team to regain the shape they’d lost towards the end of the half.
Geckoes started brightly but it was Sala who were next to score after Mike Bacon gave away a penalty and Lenny Tui slotted home the resulting spot kick. This set-back was short lived and the Geckoes were back on front thanks to Tom Kiley’s first goal of the season. Geckoes were starting to dominate the game again and the third came courtesy of a Mikkel Troen penalty after Andy Gill had been brought down in the 18 yard box.
Sid saved the penalty, and the rebound, but there was nothing he could do about the second rebound and Mikkel scored to put the Geckoes 3-1 ahead. In fairness to Sid, he must have been wondering where the Sala defence was, as there were three Geckoes lined up to score and not a white shirt to be seen.
Shortly afterwards Andy Gill capped off an excellent display with a well taken goal and made it 4-1. Sala never gave up and tried to get back into the game during the SEVEN minutes of stoppage time but the Geckoes held firm and fully deserved the win.
Report by Rob Manager
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