Double Success as Old Boys complete smash and grab at Park
4th August
Old Boys 2 – Queens Park 1
Old Boys Prems and Reserves completed a successful final day of League matches for 2018. The equations were simple for both teams, for the reserves a win was required to win the League. For the Prems a win was required to snatch the Larry O’Rorke Cup and confirm second place in the league.
The Reserves kicked off the early match at Surrey Park 3 against a strong Park team intent on getting a draw or win to win their first Div 1 Presidents Cup in 5 years. Gordy and Stitch have the team playing some good footy recently with the group of players showing plenty of steel to come from behind to win several of their recent matches. The team certainly no strangers to playing must win footy.
The game started at a fast pace with neither team quite able to create clear cut chances despite plenty of endeavour. The opening goal came midway through the first half with Reuben receiving the ball on the left and getting past his marker to try and cut the ball back across the goal. Luckily a defender tracking back knocked the ball past the keeper into the open net.
Park would level up five out from halftime as they built some pressure with successive corners as the slippery ball snuck through the gloves of Scotty D. One each at halftime was a fair reflection of the match with Old Boys just not shooting nearly enough while the defence did a solid job of breaking down the mainly aerial long ball approach from Park.
Second half was plenty more of the same with few clear cut chances and plenty of long balls. As the teams tired the game opened a bit more in the middle of the park. John would finally make the telling play when he showed enough of the ball to commit a defender and give up a foul in the box. Matt cooly stepped up to deliver the knockout blow. The final minutes were all about defence. 2-1 the final score and a fifth successive Div 1 title for Old Boys.
Bouyed by the earlier success the Prems were ready to get stuck in. Park had other ideas and set the early pace with slicker passing and some early shots to test Frank out in goals. Around the twenty minute mark Old Boys started to play their way back into the match and were making inroads via Ethan and Antoine out wide. A free kick from out wide saw the opening goal as Ethan delivered a great ball for Robbie to header home from close range.
Park were undeterred and mounted some attacks of their own and managed to sneak a goal in at the far post from a tight angle shot. Unlikely goal scorer Oscar Patterson popped up at the right time to header home from a scuffed shot to get himself off the nudie run. The players all knew exactly what was required to press home the advantage in the 2nd half. We started well and created good chances for Kyle, Kris and Robbie but all were just off target with their shots, Robbie’s hitting the post from longer range.
With these chances to kill the match off not taken, Park sensed an opportunity to get back into the contest. They threw everything at us over the last twenty minutes and it was only a combination of desperate defence and some top goal keeping from stalwart Frank O’Boyle that kept us in the lead. The final whistle was sweet as this was no less than the squad deserved from the season which has promised much but fallen short at times.
One match left next week as Div 1 take on Park in the Edinburgh Trophy final. Fingers crossed for another result and another trophy for the cabinet.
