Match Review: Casuals FC vs Aioli Monkeys FC

• GK Alex Rajnak
• DF Frazer Young
• DF David Phelps
• DF Greg Ryan
• MD Will Patz
• MD Dom Marwood
• MD Andy Dyne
• MD Elliot Jackson
• ST Cris Chadikun
• ST Joe Cadden
• ST Nick Verrill

• MD Steve Janes
• MD Andy Gillespie
• MD Joshua Jesuratnam

Not great.

Sometimes in football a scoreline is very reflective of the way the game panned out - Last week a 1-0 win gave the indication the game was much closer then it was, this week we have the opposite, a 4-0 loss indicates a thumbing - but again the opposite is true, this game was much closer then the scoreline suggests. A new look Casuals team assembled on Friday night and ready for a battle, the new look was that 7 regular starters were not part of the matchday squad. The 14th player on the team sheet just landed in the country that morning, another the ink was still drying from his freshly signed transfer and we gave 2 debuts their first full cap. But we had the what we thought was enough to battle and get the results, sadly it wasn't to be. A mix of not taking our chances/poor final balls and decisions in the final third plagued as again. At the other end 3 almost identical goals straight down the middle did the damage. Casuals will be happy to put this one behind them and focus not the games ahead and look forward to our rematch with Monkeys later in the season.

• Daniele Pacella GK
• Samuel Derek Christian DF
• Sam Thorley DF
• Sebastien Grand DF
• Jeff Suzuki DF
• Joel Terrades MD
• Harry Shaw MD
• Jamie Thuillier MD
• Tudor Livadaru MD
• Peter Besselink ST
• Mark Addy ST

• Thomas Vacher MD
• Sergio Lopes ST

Back from the dead

After a rubbish performance last week and a last minute defeat the week before, we really needed to get something out of this one to avert an early season crisis. With the gaffer doing some soul searching in North Korea (it’s quite possible we’ll never see or hear from him again) and a fair few others away we had a trim but decent looking squad of 13. Looking at their recent results, we knew Casuals would be strong so the game plan was to keep our shape and break quickly when we had the ball. The game was pretty scrappy to begin with but we settled well after that and raced into a 3-0 lead after 30 minutes. The first came from a lovely through ball from Peter, who got progressively angrier as the night went on, to Tudor who finished well first time. The second was all about Jamie. Picked up the ball just inside Casuals’ half, drove towards goal and smashed it in the bottom corner from 25 yards. Quality strike. Addy got the third after a perfectly weighted pass in behind from Harry, which made it easier to score than miss. 3-0! After going behind 2-0, 2-0 and 3-0 in our last 3 matches this was unfamiliar territory for the boys but we were determined not to let it slip. Casuals inevitably put us under pressure as the half ended, their tricky striker hitting the post and then having a goal disallowed for a clear offside. We sat back a bit in the second half to protect the lead and the back four of Samse, Sam, Seb and Jeff did a great job of dealing with anything Casuals threw at them. Daniele barely having a save to make in the 90 mins. The killer 4th goal came after about 65mins. Centre back Seb, clearly taking a continental approach to the position, somehow found himself on the right wing and lofted a ball over the Casuals defence for Addy who took it down and put the game to bed. We saw out the rest of the game fairly comfortably to pick up a much needed victory. A number of great performances from us, including all the back 4, Harry and Jamie in the middle and Angry Peter on the wing, but MOM went to Addy for running around a lot and scoring a couple of toepokes. MOM for Casuals - Striker, Joe, was a constant threat. Thanks to Casuals, and Segar and the ref team for a fair game.