First game on the season for Lambeth Classics against their neighbors Lambeth All Stars.
Classics turned up for the half asleep and it showed at the beginning of the game when All Stars took an early lead with only 15 seconds of the game gone. It still took time for Classics to get involved in the game and to their credit; All Stars were first to most of the balls and showed desire and hunger to put their stamp on the game.
All Stars doubled their lead when Classics showed some slack defending and decision making, an unfortunate own goal by MD made the score 0-2. Once Classics realised that they were truly in a game, the grit and dig in mentality began to show, Classics started to win more 50-50 balls, this allowed us to show our quality with some exceptional interchanges between Ike, Ozzie, Mark and Gill. With Neil demonstrating the art of tackling, things began to come together. A beautiful through ball by Gill after some neat teamwork allowed Ade to score his first of the season.
The back four of Earl, John, MD and Ray started to settle down and made some intelligent play to start our attacks, with Classics gelling together, a nice assist by Ike allowed Mark to finish neatly to make the score 2-2, at this point, their was only going to be one winner.
The second half did not replicate what Classics did for the last 20 minutes of the first half, where Classics should had gone into another gear, we stayed at the level of the opponents and at times made hard work of things that should be basic and simple. To the credit of the Classics players, this was the first time many of the guys have played with each other but we were still able to take a 3-2 lead with another assist from Ike, which enabled Ade to score his second of the season.
After this point, players became tired but still showed heart, Classics had the opportunity to make it 4-2 when they were awarded a penalty, Ade stepped up to take it, the keeper made a decent save guessing the right way. A few more opportunities were created but not finished. On a plus note, our play will become much better as players become more familiar with each other. As stated before the game, we cant win the league by winning one game as much as we can’t lose it, but you are able to build an identity that all will live and die by, todays attitude when we were 0-2 down was first class, this attitude enabled you to win todays game, well done, enjoy and prepare for next week.
