Off early to Dixon Park for a 9am K.O. with barely enough players to for fill the fixture but the boys who played stood up to the mark and gave a good account of themselves.
With team Captain Brandon McFerran away and Aaron Thompson still out through injury, we also had a late injury to Rhys Mackie that put him out so we were down to a bare 11 with young Ben Appleton going to play his first full game. So with no subs everyone would have to do their bit and they did.
We decided to start with the formation that did so well in the second half against Rosario and it work well for the majority of the match. A 3-5-2, but we lost an early goal from a corner kick when Sirocco player lost his marker and got a free header to put Sirocco 1 up. We battle on and the boys grew in strength as the match went on and got a deserved equaliser in the 29th minute when Edward Muldrew received the ball just outside the box he powered his way through with sheer strength and determination and put the ball in the back of the net to make it 1 : 1. Eddie seems to like this fixture at Dixon Park last time he played here he scored two. A minute later and Sirocco were back in front, as the ball came into our box Jai came for it and as he went to put his foot on the ball it went under his foot and the Sirocco striker nipped in to grab a tap in. Jai made amends for this mistake as Sirocco where lifted by this goal but the found Jai in great for as he pulled of saves after saves.
HALF TIME 1 : 2
Half time team talk was to praise how the boys performed in the first half and just go out and do the same again. Now playing up the hill we knew we would have to work much harder but again we grabbed an equaliser in the 52nd minute we were awarded a free kick, Matthew Guest took the kick and put the ball in to the box Sirocco cleared it as far as Stuart Hannah who flicked the ball through to Reece Atkinson and he put the ball in to the net 2 : 2. Sirocco to kick off and Ards were not organised quickly enough a Sirocco scored to make it 2 : 3. They scored again when a miss hit lob deceived Jai Sykes in goal and went over his head and they added a fifth with 5 minutes to go.
FULL TIME 2 : 5
Managers Comments:
Well done boys you gave a good account of yourselves today especially with us only having 11 players and you all knew you would have to go the distance without the aid of a sub. The scoreline certainly doesn’t say how close this game was and i’am sure Sirocco would agree that we gave them a good game.
On behalf of me, Gordon, Robbie & Stuart I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
