OBs Continue Winning Start against Thistle
Hat-Trick Hero J Cuff
In the first mid-week game of the season, Thistle were hosting Old Boys under the lights of the ILT Football Turf. After an upset loss by Queens Park in the previous night, Old Boys went into the game careful not to take the opposition lightly and that banking 3 points in the middle of a busy couple of weeks would be vital for their title aspirations.
The main message in the sheds from coach Rueben Lindsay was to stay focused during the game and Old Boys did just that from the kick off earning a penalty 2 minutes in after some fancy footwork upfront drew a lazy tackle from a Thistle defender. Cuffy calmly slotted it and it was 1-0 Old Boys.
That didn’t deter Thistle though as they had a number of long range efforts and were rewarded with a volley into the top right corner to level things up after 10.
After numerous long balls being defused by the Thistle offside trap, Old Boys still saw this as a way to penetrate and it paid dividends when Cuffy managed to get on the end of one with a darting run down the right edge. Continuing his run into the box he slammed one towards the goal giving the keeper no chance, 2-1 Old Boys.
It was only a matter of minutes later when Mani hit a prodigious cross field pass to Cuff who then bamboozled his defender all ends up and from a tight angle hammered the ball low into the corner to complete a hat-trick in just the first 25min of play.
After a couple of near chances in which Old Boys were unlucky not to convert they were still satisfied heading into oranges with a 3-1 lead.
With an eye on the weekend Rueben was ringing the changes early in the first half and it took Foz only a few minutes to make an impact. Preddy made a break and fired a shot which was saved by the keeper and spun over to Foz to fortuitously tap in to make it the fourth of the evening for Old Boys.
Thistle tried to stay in the game but the defence of Old Boys was too strong and their best effort was to no avail as Mitch was equal to the task leaping up to parry away a long range attempt.
The game stagnated as the quick turnaround played its toll with players tiring. Preddy still had something in the tank though as another great corner came in from Cuff and Preddy rose up from the crowded penalty area and headed home the final goal of the night albeit to the disbelief on his face.
5-1 to Old Boys was the final result as they now look to a tough match up against a confident Southend side.
For Live Text Commentary of all games – Click Here
