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YC&AC, Saturday 8th December,
It’s been a funny week for the Geckoes. It started with a game against the Hibs where they created enough chances to win three games and lost 6-1 and finished with the Christmas Party which featured a wide selection of gloves and more shots than the rest of the TML has seen all season. In the middle was a bizarre 6-3 victory over a Celts side that refused to give up at YCAC on Saturday afternoon.
On the way in, we bumped into a few shell shocked Vagabonds players who said that we were in for a real battle and despite the score line, a real battle it was.
The game kicked off and it was the Celts who started the brighter on the bobbly pitch and spent much of the first 15 minutes pressing in the Geckoes half. That they weren’t able to capitalise on this was down to some excellent defending from Nat and Yu in the centre of the Geckoes back 4. When the first goal came it was against the run of play and there was an element of luck to it as Andy Gill picked up the ball on the right side of midfield went past his man and hit it into the far corner. 1-0 to the Geckoes and for only the second time this season we’d scored first.
The goal seemed to knock some of the confidence out of the Celts and for most of the rest of the half it was all Geckoes. By this stage Andy was running riot and it wasn’t long before he got behind the Celts back four again to cross for Kazu Kikuchi to score his third goal of the season. Mikkel added a third after some good work from Pete Zollar in the Celts 18 yard box and Kazu should have made it 4 after another good ball by Andy Gill but the Celts hung on and the half time score was 3-0 to the Geckoes.
Job done, or you’d like to think…
The Celts started the second half with a passion and belief that was missing from the first half but it was the Geckoes who nearly added to their lead after a great ball from Yasuyuki could only be headed wide by Paul. A let off for the Celts and it wasn’t long before they were causing their own problems in the Geckoes defence. Early in the second half they struck the post for the first time and it wasn’t long after that that they finally got on the score-sheet.
Straight after the restart the Celts attacked again and very nearly made it 3-2 but the shot was a fraction too high and crashed against the bar and bounced to safety.
The Geckoes responded by bringing Andy Gill back into the game and he continued where he’d left off in the first half – creating opportunities and causing general havoc in the Celts defence. He picked the ball up, ran into the box, ran back out, ran back in and was hacked down by the Celts defence and Jorge (who had an excellent game) had no option but to point to the spot. Andy took the penalty himself and the keeper pulled off a good save. Unfortunately for him Paul James was first onto the rebound and smacked the ball home. 4-1 Geckoes and at this point we thought we should be safe…
But no, the Celts just don’t know how to give up… they hit the bar again before they scored to bring it back to 4-2.
Andy Gill then made it 5-2 after another good run from the right but the Celts fought back again – hitting the bar for the fourth and final time before the rebound was converted to make it 5-3.
Mads scored probably the goal of the game in the last couple of minutes to finally kill the game off but you have to give a lot of credit to the Celts who simply refused to accept defeat.
Andy Gill was clear man of the match but special mentions should also go to Yu who did a fantastic job marking Henry and preventing him the space he thrives on and to Spencer and Brommie for the work they put in in midfield.
The Geckoes played better last week when they lost 6-1 than they did this week and won 6-3. It is, as they say, a funny old game, though I’m not sure the Irish side of Tokyo is laughing that much.
Report by Rob Manager
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