07/02/2010

Sometimes it is the small margins that make the difference in football. Over a season they generally even themselves out. Not so with Cashen B. Once again they claimed defeat from the jaws of victory against a very spirited Bodhran side.

You could argue that it was 1 fluke, and 2 individual mistakes that cost Rovers, but this journalist won't, as he was involved in all 3 incidents, so I will look to highlight the excellent tricky play from the opposition instead.

The game itself was very even, and a draw would have been the fairest result. What is certain is that last season, Rovers would have lost this game by several more than the one goal that they did. Bodhran will wake this morning, knowing that they were in a game, as the B's have discovered a battling quality and are now quite difficult to beat...it keeps happening though.

Darren was forced in to some changes to his line-up with regulars Chabs, Rick and Aleks being away for various reasons, and Leon and Mike letting him down on the morning of the game. He was however buoyed by the return of Cashen's record appearance holder, Paul Ryan after his travelling adventures. There were also returns to the starting line up for Aidy, Dan and Jon.

Cashen started slowly and therefore on the back foot, but this is fairly usual and just as Cashen were dragging themselves in to the game, disaster struck. A long ball was punted in to the far corner, Guy tried to jockey the number 9, as he was reasonably far out from goal. But with an excellent and surprisingly quick drop of the shoulder, the left back was turned as the Bodhran forward looped in a hopeful cross to the back post, luckily for Rovers, no attackers chased it in, unluckily for Rovers they didn’t need to, as the ball looped right in to the top corner. 1-0.

It says a lot about the new and improved B team that they dragged themselves back in, and got themselves ahead at half time with 2 great goals from Brocky. The first came after a pin point pass from Guy (see I did do some things right in this game!) landed on the foot of PR, only for him to miscontrol it, however the quick witted forward, squared for Brocky to blast home with his left peg. The second came after a through ball from Aidy again found the right winger who somehow took it around a defender, before putting enough top spin on the ball for it just to trickle home before the sprinting defender could clear it.

Had it not been for the glory of a possible hat-trick, Rovers would have been 2 goals to the good, as Brocky failed to spot Kayode free with an open goal to hit choosing to blast it over instead.

Half time went on forever, despite both teams being ready to kick off again, the referee wasn’t, having chosen to go and warm up with a cup of tea. This extended break did Cashen no favours, as it meant that they started slowly again. Rovers found themselves defending several corners in a row. One such corner was swung right in to the far post, only for it to be handballed on the line by Guy. The referee showed no hesitation in awarding the spot kick. If Staunts had done what Guy had done, stood still on the line and put his hand over his face, he would have saved the resulting penalty, but no he had to go all Goalie on us and try to second guess the forward, by diving to his left. 2-2, game on.

The rest of the second half was quite even, with both teams visibly tiring and a lot of the play on the break. One of the things that Rovers don’t do well is goal kicks, and this was to be our undoing once again. Hiwa and Guy were sharing the kicks, and neither of them were reaching the halfway line, in their defence there was a mountainous incline from goal line to half way line, but never mind. Hiwa took a goal kick that only went as far as Alan, who in turn passed to Darren who was mugged by the quicker midfielder, who slipped in a pass to the striker who Guy was no longer marking as it was our goal kick, which gifted him his hat-trick. 3-2.

Rovers did everything they could to get an equaliser but to no avail. Darren brought out a smart save from the keeper, and several other shots were either wide of the target or easy pickings for the keeper. So once again 0 points for Cashen.