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Stop me if you've heard this before, plucky Coveside squad
turns out for big match against tough Div. 1 team. CUFC play hard, play
well, manager has a beer, have a couple of chances, give up an
opportunistic goal, manager has a beer, carry bulk of play in the second
half, manager has a beer, and Coveside lose by a
goal. And manager has a beer.Maybe CUFC should look at signing Bill Murray
to play centre forward because this script is
starting to sound like Groundhog Day.Though blessed with fortune to be
playing on a brisk but beautiful morning,on grass at McCartney, in
December, Coveside still lost 1-0 to Nordic on Sunday.
Coveside suffered their fifth loss of the season, and the fifth by just
a single goal. The lads showed up ready to go, well
most of them did. Mark Docherty had to squeeze into
something of Russell's, pushing hard inside to make it fit, there
was some scraping, and bleeding, but in the end, Doc fit into Russ'
boots, seeing as he'd left his kit inside his car which was
locked up in a garage to fix the transmission and
remove the stains from the back seat. Cloudy also needed to borrow some
equipment, showing up with only one shinpad (sparking rumour he's a
one-footed player), but not to fear, Bernie has eight pairs that he's not
using. Speaking of Bernie, he claims he's out for weeks now with a broken
foot, seems he was drinking a Fosters King Kan, and dropped the thing,
full, onto his wittle toes. After much crying and rolling around on the
ground in the puddle of beer, Bernie turned attention to his foot and
found it was hurt. So, without a Ward on the field the team had to make do
with a patchwork lineup. An unusually good start was there for Coveside
right off the bat. Solid marking at the back kept Nordic at bay and even
offered some chances on the counterattack. Mike Norris even performed a
Christmas pantomime of Sunny and the Beanstalk, having to man-mark the
6-foot-7 gallumph Nordic had up front, and he did it to perfection without
nary so much as a single cuss word. Al Roberts, Randy Ash, Harp
"Mom" Dhaliwal and Bryn Botham also got stuck in at the back,
and marked up solidly. A couple of long range blasts, from Randy A. and
Doc were well intentioned but soared off the mark. Good running up front
by Craig Larson and Ryan Matches kept pressure on the Nordic back line,
especially when the ball was played back to the Nordic goalie. Service was
good from the midfield with great effort from Andy Dudley, Doc and Karim
Ismail, though the flow seemed to get stuck on the right side too much
leaving Karim all alone with nothing but his thoughts of pulled muscles on
the left side by himself. Midway through the first half, a long looping
cross came against the run of play, and a Nordic midfielder first timed a
screaming volley just inside the box, and it handcuffed the CUFC goalie to
make the score 1-0. While CUFC didn't go into their usual post-goal funk,
the energy level did drop and some of the bitching began. By halftime, Al
gave us a right rubbishing, getting us out of our whining, fingerpointing
and navel gazing ways. As such the lads came out determined in the second
half, and carried the play. But there's something amiss with the CUFC
attack, the continued obession with the long ball, be it from the goalie,
the defence or midfield, hampers the opportunity to score goals. The
temptation to just belt it into space and just hope Larson, Matches or
Jason Fisher can run on to it proves too great, so the scoring chances are
few and far between with little build up and even fewer shots. Larson did
manage a near miss after beating the goalie to a long ball, and slotting
it towards the open goal, only to see it cleared off the line. Dave Woods
put in his usual solid effort, as he and Bartlett fought hard in the air
against the big Nordic lads. Woods also got his customary yellow card for
what could only be described as an "unfortunate" challenge.
Nordic locked things up at the back and were content to try the
counterattack, but every chance was dealt with admirably by the boys at
the back. Up front, there was little space, and Coveside again left empy
handed at the final whistle. Afterwards there was the usual resignation,
we'd played well, but lost again. Bernie, himself was at a loss: "I
don't know why I'm shaking," he said, taking a long pull on his can
of Canadian.
Sounds like the Christmas party can't come soon enough.
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