The Firsts’ dominated play against a robust NY Croatia team. We had a lot of the ball, while Croatia only got the odd long range attempt off. Our possession and frequent long ball attempts to beat the high defensive line and their offside trap repeatedly failed due to some very poor line work from the aged referee’s assistant (I have informed the league that he should not be officiating first division games). We should have been clear through on several occasions, but were wrongly called back. The one time we did beat the trap we could not finish when in on goal. The Croatians visibly tired in the second half and with a more able assistant running the line in this half, it wasn’t long before we were breaking through the slow defense. Finally, a deep run from Pat O down the right saw him reach the line and square perfectly to George at the far post, who took his chance well. It was an excellently worked goal. As the game went on our defense repelled anything they threw at us, while we continued to break though their rearguard. We had another two or three one on one situations and repeatedly failed to find the back of the net. At this point the sun was setting and the floodlights had not turned on. With 10 minutes to go, playing in very low light the referee stopped the game. He will now report the score and game time situation to the league and they will decide whether the score will stand or we have to replay the game.
TEAM: Ben, Pat O, Pat W, Paul, Mike N, Andy, Mike N, Conor, Danny D, George, Sharif – SUBS (used): Eli, Kyle
