CRU 1 – Shiner 1

For some reason I’m in no mood to write the game report. I think I’m still upset that we missed an opportunity to get the full three points yesterday. I’ll get over it.

To paraphrase BT on the sidelines, “this game used to be a marque matchup, but now it’s a battle of the cellar dwellers…” Both teams came into the match desperately needing points. Cameron Road sat one point ahead of Shiner at the bottom of the table, and a win for either side could see them get back into the middle of the pack. We had a low turnout at the start of the game, just barely fielding 11 players, but a few more warm bodies trickled in and we ended up with 3 subs for the rest of the game.

The first half was pretty tame until the last 10 minutes or so. I can’t remember too many clear cut chances for either side, but I do remember Scott having two long-range shots in the span of a couple minutes near the end. Also, Jay had to endure a shoulder charge from a Shiner player which earned him a yellow card for messing with our keeper. All tied up at 0-0 at the half.

The second half started off lively as Andy played me in early with a tasty thru-ball, but the Shiner keeper got to the ball just before I did. Honestly, the game was kind of a blur and I can’t remember too much of the specifics. I do remember, about halfway through the half, Marcus bursting down the middle of the pitch headed toward goal. As luck would have it, he was taken down from behind inside the box and the ref pointed to the penalty spot. With Willis on the sidelines, Bob stepped up to take the penalty kick… as we watched, he sent the keeper the wrong way and smashed the ball into the back of the old onion bag. (cut to much fist pumping)

At this point we were feeling good and the game was rolling along at a high intensity. Unfortunately, Shiner got a late corner and in the box there was some pushing and shoving going on, mainly from a somewhat limp-legged Shiner player I’m told) and “oh no”.. the ref calls for a penalty kick against us! The horror. Yeah, he made it and we ended the game tied 1-1. Frustrating because I knew we could get the win, but at this point in the season with the way the games have been going, I guess we should be glad to get the point.

We’re going to have to pick up our game in the last four weeks fellas. Especially since we’re going to loose the talents of several players for sure. (John – moving and Scott – marathon training)  Hopefully BT and Dermot can come back from injury soon to give us a boost, but it’s going to take maximum effort and an “all hands on deck” approach to get back to last year’s winning form. So if you haven’t made it out to a game lately, please try and be there this Sunday at 10:00am when we take on Verity… they’re big and mean, so we’ll need everyone there.

Man of the Match – This was a tough one, I think we all played well. I’m going to go with Jay, who had a solid game between the sticks and gets bonus points for getting run over by a Shiner forward. You can pick up your winner’s Luby’s gift certifiacte and gold-plated ball point pen set at the Crown on Wednesday.