LOOSE MEN EVERYWHERE
The Royals headed to Marcelin with a squad of 15, full of hopes of winning our first match of the year.
Last years golden boot winner(and match reporter, just wanted to remind people to the times I actually wasn't useless ha) Pete Roylance went in for a tackle, lost balance and fell awkwardly to the ground hearing a rather loud CLICK as he hit the floor. Pete came off injured after 3 minutes with ligament damage to the AC Joint, this meant Kosta would get a run up front. The next twenty minutes after that were so poor they shouldn't be written about, but they will. A careless challenge in the box, a penalty and the score was 1-0. The ref not calling a foul in the process of a goal, striker one on one with the goalie the score was 2-0. Zero man accountability, loose men everywhere and the score was 3-0.
That being said, after this horror run the boys settled down and started to play our best football. However Marcelin were to squeeze a fourth goal in before half time with a audacious Cantona like chip from outside the box. Goalie Nick had already been shaken up after being stamped on by a forward and he let off an obscenity so loud they heard it in Bamako, the capital of African country Mali, lets just say the women there were not impressed either. Daniel remonstrated with a player about this and handbags were avoided by a yellow card each. Our best attacking effort came from that from Rolo who unleashed a rocket of a shot that deserved a goal, but it was off target and now gets a consolation mention in the match report instead.
At half time we tried to regroup and talk about how we could win this game. James, Bruce and Steve were running rampart in the second half and Kosta had an opportunity or two. Our spirits were deflated when they scored another goal, which has to be said was a screamer, but either way another heavy defeat was squashing our spirits. Speaking of squashing and things that are heavy, there 6th goal was from a penalty from a defender who was quite robust, yet at the same time agile, kudos to you sir. Jake picked up a yellow card with a nice hack. Marcelin who wanted to win on all levels of this game retaliated and their forward picked up a straight red for trying to kick out/stomp on the nice quiet scholar that is Branko. The final score was 6-0, a disappointing result again, but we cant linger on it too long, have an important game against Old Caulfield coming up, that should be our first win of the season!
PR