MARABESE CERAMICS 3 - 2 KINGS AFC

Saturday 1st September 2007

Kings: Kirby, Pouncey (Richardson), Fordham, Cain, B Whelan, M Whelan, Sacbuker (Minty), L Clements, Tomlin, Barber, Brodier (Davies)

Half time score: 0-0

Kings AFC Scorers: Tomlin, Davies

MAN OF THE MATCH MIKE WHELAN

Game started off at a frantic pace for Kings, and the penny looked to have finally dropped with the team starting the game off with much more urgency.

First chance came when Kewell was on one of his wonder runs and was hacked down about 25 yards out. Marcus & Skolo were over the ball when Skolo launched a curling drive that hit the cross bar and went over.

The first 15 minutes were dominated by Kings with the young Barber chasing down a great ball by Marcus to have a half chance that the keeper handled at least 5 yards outside the area to stop Kings scoring. Despite the domination, Kings created few opportunities, with hard working Clements & Skolo snuffing out any opposition attacks.

Marabese began coming back into the game and created a few long range opportunities without causing too many problems. What efforts they did manage were thwarted by the impressive Kirby in goal. He stopped a good effort low to his left and superbly saved from a header from close range at the back post.

Meanwhile Kewell had the best chance of the half, running onto the ball of the game from Barber to be 1 on 1 with the keeper. He looked to have done enough to go past the keeper, but was unable to locate a team mate or finish the effort off.

HALF TIME 0 – 0

Marabese came out the second half the stronger team; however Kings were beginning to create some good interplay.

Brodier had his best spell of the game on the right wing and after some good link play between Marcus & Barber, sent the Brodster through on goal and after skipping past the last defender and running round the keeper he slotted home with a great left foot finish. Unfortunately an extremely dubious offside decision was made and the goal was chalked off. The response was met with disbelief from Brodier, with the agreement of all his team mates. The Marabese lines man, possibly an offspring of Rod Stewart, had made a poor decision.

Next Kings attack saw Kewell, now playing left wing, picking up the ball from Whelan and was flying into the penalty area, when he was blatantly hacked down. From the sidelines it appeared at least 5 yards in the box, however with a difficult angle and decision from the Ref - a free kick was awarded.

With the resulting free kick by Skolo, the ball again came out to Kewell who with his back to goal, moved the ball in front of him and again was blatantly hacked down – NO PENALTY!

It didn’t take long for Kings to recover from this though as Marcus closed down the Marabese defense and saw a goal keeper’s clearance rebound off him and Marcus tapped the ball into the net. 0 - 1

However, Marabese took advantage of some over confidence, again by the Kings players, and scored a good goal direct from the kick off. 1 - 1 The Kings Manager, Stuart Minty, was not impressed by some of the Kings players actions. After last weeks defeat, the Kings players should all be aware of the need to concentrate!! Over celebrations will be kept to a minimum until the final whistle will be drilled into the players.

The Kings heads dropped after this and Marabese began controlling the game.
The impressive Clements & Skolo were beginning to tire and a fortunate cross from the right flank of Marabese was miss hit by their attacker into the top right corner. 2 – 1. Marabese had other opportunities to increase their lead with their young striker having an audacious volley cannon off the cross bar to safety.

They then scored a third goal, to seal the win. 3 - 1

Now we saw some spirit come back into the Kings team, Pouncey, who had an impressive debut at right back, was subbed for Richardson and Kewell began to receive the ball more. Danny Cain was becoming more aggressive and vocal at the back, which had been missed. His combination with Fordham that worked well in the first half, now changed with Fordham at RB and Richardson at CB.

Kings began to put some efforts of target with Skolo sending a beautiful free kick into their box with no one on the end of it. Kewell managed another swirling run despite two defenders man marking him and set up a lovely cross to Davis who had just came on for Brodier to slot home. 3 – 2

With seconds remaining, Kewell combined with Whelen and sent a ball to Marcus who appeared 1 on 1, when he sent a difficult ball for Barber to control. Unfortunately, Barber had little time to react and the chance went.
Soon after the final whistle went.

Another defeat, but some encouraging signs. Next week’s game is a must win!

FINAL SCORE: 3 - 2

Match Report By Lee Morgan