Pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars and a last minute header by Bob proves to be the Lucky Charm for Cameron Road

There’s nothing like beating the Celtic Cowboys on a Sunday morning. Doesn’t matter which version your facing, when you see those green and white stripes on the opposite side of the pitch, you wanna take’em down. And that’s just what Cameron Road did yesterday in a thrilling 3-2 victory.

With a four sub strong bench, Cameron Road came out in full force hoping to ride the wave of the past 2 weeks solid performances. After seeing Austin Athletic tie with Massive Attack, the D2 table was starting to get pretty tight, so CRU knew that a victory could push them into a mid-table position – which usually doesn’t happen until March.

Celtic started off the game with a high defensive line, tempting the fate of a quick counter attack, but counting on a little help from the linesman (and an over eager Chappy) to win some off side calls. Cameron Road settled into a bit of a groove, continuing to play their improving passing game. BT was the main man looking to break their trap, sending in several deep balls over the Celtic defense. After fighting through several near misses and several off side calls, CRU’s patience and persistence paid off. Bob gathered the ball near the center circle, faced the murky gulf waters, and said the ancient chant that released the Kraken from his deep watery defensive den. Cuyler raced onto Bob’s through ball, took a daft touch or two, and sizzled a low shot past the Celtic keeper to give CRU an early 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, that lead only lasted for a few minutes, as Celtic stormed back and caught Cameron Road napping at the far post as they headed home the equalizer. 1-1 and game on.

Cameron Road settled back down and continued to force the issue, trying to retake the lead. The Kraken made another trademark run down the left hand side, but was thwarted by a Persius-like divot in the Onion Creek turf before reaching the Celtic goal. Soon after, Leif played in a great ball down the left hand channel to Ciro, who darted through the Celtic defense and whipped in a cross across the face of goal. Chris Peterson, fresh from a training session with Inter Milan, met the cross in front of goal and slammed home a top shelf goal that sent Cameron Road back into the lead at 2-1.

The first half ended with Cameron Road creating a few more opportunities. Peterson whipped in a great cross that Dermot got a head on and Chappy got off a weak left footer with a defender draping all over him. At 2-1, Cameron Road was feeling good going into half time with the lead.

The second half got underway with Celtic pushing hard for the tying goal. Cameron Road’s defense stood strong for the most part. Billy had some nice defensive headers at the back while Andy displayed some old school 1970’s style defending on the left. On one such occasion, Andy went in for a 50/50 ball on the sideline, clearly won the ball, but also destroyed the Celtic attacker. Nothing malicious about the tackle, but Andy earned himself a yellow card for the tackle, much to the dismay of Leif who screamed “It was a World Class tackle!!”. We’ve got your back on this one Andy.

Andy tried to make up for his card with a nice shot later in the half, but he pushed it right at the Celtic keeper.

Celtic continued to play their high trap, again opening themselves up for a quick counter attack. Dermot ended up beating the trap and found himself in on goal on the left hand side. He showed the composure that some of his Irish brothern lacked on the opposite side of the ball and coolly tried  to slot in a near post shot, but it went inches wide.

With Cameron Road gaining a lot of possession in the middle of the pitch due to the Celtic keeper’s short punts, another goal was looking like it was in the cards. Unfortunately, Celtic came back and stuck an equalizer as one of their tall attackers rose above the CRU defense to nod in a header off a corner kick. At 2-2 the game was getting a little dicey, with both teams thinking they could go on for the winner.

BT started pumping in long range shots, Leif penetrated deep into the Celtic defense several times, Peterson continued sending in great crosses from the right, and Willis went looking for Dermot on a late free kick.

But with only minutes remaining, it was Bob who rose to the occasion and completed the Cameron Road comeback. Chris Peterson sent in a corner kick from the left hand side and it was Bob who fought to head it home – much to the delight of his two kids sequestered in the mosquito tent on the sidelines.

As Celtic kicked off, it was all hands on deck as the entire CRU squad bunkered down and turned away the last Celtic attacks and the game ended with Cameron Road controlling the ball on the touch line.

A thrilling game and a great team victory for sure.

Man-of-the-Match: A goal, an assist and several great crosses earn Chris Peterson the Man of the Match award this week.