MATCH REPORT for SUNDAY 14th October 2012
F C Puma 3 St Michaels F C 2
This was expected to be a another tough encounter against a side that were unbeaten this season. Whichever team won would be at the top of the league. Just like last season F C Puma played route one football from the start and with the aid of playing on a Junior size pitch this was always going to be a major factor in the outcome of the game.
It only took 4 minutes for this tactic to bear fruits when a long ball down the middle was not handled well by the St Michaels defence and the F C puma winger scored from a narrow angle. St Michaels were struggling to play their football on this small pitch and it took 29 minutes before any meaningful effort when Stuart Bird was unlucky with a long range shot.
After 35 minutes the F C Puma defender was booked for a sequence of fouls on Adam Fahy. Three minutes later the same defender brought down Adam Fahy in the box for an obvious penalty. The referee incredibly gave no further action and the defender remained on the pitch. Stuart Bird then saw his scuffed penalty kick saved by the F C Puma keeper. In the last minute of the 1st half another foul on Adam Fahy in the box led to a penalty being awarded. This time Ronnie Mewes stepped up to take the kick and saw his shot well saved by the F C Puma keeper.
St Michaels recovered from these setbacks well and it only took a minute of the second half when a long throw from James Mckerrell saw Connor Reardon tapping in to level the scores at 1 – 1. On the 59th minute Adam Fahy was denied by a great double save by the F C Puma keeper, but the ball fell kindly for Danny Baptiste to tap in to give St Michaels the lead at 1 – 2. Unfortunately this lead lasted just a minute, when another mistake in the St Michaels defence led to another tap in to make the score 2 – 2.
In the 68th minute Ben Baptiste replaced his brother Danny Baptiste in midfield. Ten minutes later F C Puma were unlucky when a fierce shot hit the St Michaels crossbar, but 5 minutes later a horrendous rush of blood by Harry Graham in the St Michaels goal led to the F C Puma forward tapping into an unguarded net to retake the lead. There was still time for an equaliser and this came with 6 minutes to go when Ronnie Mewes badly miscued in front of goal and the chance went begging.. This proved to be the last good chance in the match which finished 3 – 2 to F C Puma.
An extremely disappointing performance by St Michaels, especially after the excellent performance the previous week. Two goals were given away by the St Michaels defence, with one ridiculoue piece of goalkeeping providing the other. Add to that the two penalty misses and that pretty much sums up the game. No real special mentions this week with Connor Reardon being the best of an extremely poor bunch.
