Today’s performance in difficult conditions against the Besingby Park Rangers B team was one of the finest from the Black Sox.
From the kick off the boys played some great controlled football, keeping possession and moving into B P R 'B territory frequently.
Both Kaaim and Sultan marshalled the defence and limited the opposition with any clear threats onto our goal. The boys had more of the possession and Bradley was a constant threat with Messi-esque type runs at the oppositions defence.
The Besingby lads started to threat late on in the first half and applied some pressure onto our goal, and it was from that that they took the lead against the run of play. From a poor kick out from our keeper the Besingby attacker found himself straight onto our goal and set up his team mate with a simple tap in. The half ended with the boys finishing off strongly and there were so many positives to take into the second half But the curse of the half time break struck the boys as they were switched off and the opposition’s striker found himself clean on goal and slotted it in for a undeserved 2 nil lead. The boy’s spirits may have been broken by this set back, but not today as they played with so much passion and fight and picked themselves up and carried on the great pressure onto the Besingby goal.
Luke and Bradley in particular carried the fight with great penetrating runs that had the opposition scared. But Bradley showed what a valuable player he is by constantly threatening with great runs which scared the opposition’s players. It was a great run from Bradley deep into our own half where he took on 3 men to find himself clean onto goal and pulled one back to make it 2-1. This lifted they whole LNER camp as we knew that we should not be 2-1 down.
Then came a giant slice of luck as we were awarded a contentious penalty decision, in all fairness it was hard to see what the referee gave it for, but after out last visit to Besingby when we played the C team and we were not awarded a stone wall penalty we were not complaining. Bradley was awarded the responsibility to equal the score and from a retake he unfortunately hit the ball wide of the post.
Once again another setback for the LNER boys, but once again they forgot about it and carried on to find the equaliser. Our domination showed with the amount of corners the boys won and from those Bradley and Amin hit some great deliveries into the box and had the opposition’s defence scrambling to clear their lines but still no goal. But then came a moment of magic from Bradley. In the centre of the park he performed a great stop and turn that left his defender flat footed and then took on 2 players to set up Cian who finished it emphatically with a great power shot the nestled into the bottom corner, 2 apiece and deservedly so.
Now it was down to Besingby to see the game out and keep the game a draw as our lads smelt fear and went for the kill. The pressure applied was immense and we should of won a late penalty. Luke found himself in the box and while preparing himself to hit a shot the defender clipped him down. The referee played on, but it was more a penalty than the one he did award us and I felt he played on as he knew he gave a soft one to us earlier on in the game. But if its a penalty then no matter what his decision was previously he had to give it, but unfortunately we did not get it and time ran out and it finished all square and 2 all.
What I witnessed from the LNER Black Sox today was passion, commitment and team work against a tough side in terribly cold and wet conditions. This provided Coach Simon with so much positives and optimism for future games. It was tough to choose a man of the match as the whole team fought for their club. Sultan and Kaaim were immense in defence, limiting the opposition to a few chances. Bradley was an offensive power house, constantly being a thorn in the oppositions defence. But Simon saw it fit to select two man of the match awards. First to Cian who scored his first LNER goal with a strike of great composure, accuracy and power and the second award went to Luke who constantly went on great powerful penetrating runs into enemy territory. Well done to the whole team who put a performance that would have made LNER proud. Match Report supplied by Ishan K.
