Barnstonworth Rovers Thirds (1) - Pythagoras Samos (4), 5/18/08

The Thirds fell to a 4-1 loss to league leaders Pythagoras Samos on Sunday morning in a game a lot tighter than the scoreline suggests.

After a narrow 2-1 defeat on the last meeting, the Thirds were obviously up for revenge as every man and his dog showed up for the 10am kickoff at McCarren
Park. There were just about enough kits for all who turned up and, with possibly the strongest starting 11 we have had all season, the Thirds dominated the opening spell and could have been 3 goals up within 20 minutes. With Donald and Bobby both getting forward down the wings the Thirds were causing real problems for the Greek defense culminating in a free kick 40 yards from goal. Pek moved up to take it and, spotting their keeper off his line, lofted the ball over eveyone and into the net. The ref stopped the celebrations short, however, as he awarded a goal kick due to the free kick being indirect. Despite having close to 20 players, not a single Rover saw him indicate as such before the kick was taken. The fact that he was in conversation with the other team in his native Greek obviously had nothing to do with the decision.

Within 10 minutes the Thirds got a legitimate goal. Mauro got the ball around 30 yards out in the middle with Bobby coming screaming down the right flank. Mauro played it nicely to his feet and Bobby made no mistake after running through on goal to make it 1-0. A few minutes later it could have been two. A similar move down the left side gave Donald a shooting opportunity which their keeper could only parry. Mauro was waiting but the ball bounced up at an awkward height and he could only direct it back into the keeper's hands.

Failure to take more of these early chances were eventually rued as the Greeks got a fortunate equaliser. Zac grabbed a high ball out of the air but somehow dropped it at his feet with their striker rushing in. He could only hit the post but got a further lucky break as it deflected back to him for an easy tap in. And worse was to follow. From a corner kick, Zac misjudged the flight of the cross and watched the ball sail over his head. Luckily enough for the Rovers, Mackers was waiting at the far post to clear the danger. Or so we thought. In his infinite wisdom, Mackers instead chose to rifle it into the gaping net to make it 2-1 to the Greeks.

The remainder of the half was dominated by ugly challenges. The worst was by their number 7 who swiped Pek from behind in what should have been a straight red card. Mackers, on the bench by this point, made no mistake in letting the referee know this. Pek was also pretty miffed at the challenge and threatened to box the offending Greek's ears for him. After a few minutes of handbags the ref yellow carded both players. Things only got uglier for the rest of the match and with the Rovers needing a goal to get back into the game all these fouls only served to disrupt their rhythm.

Midway through the second half they did create a glorious chance to tie the game. A ball from midfield was played through to Mauro who beat their offside trap to be through one-on-one with the keeper. The keeper went down early and Mauro sidestepped him leaving the goal at his mercy. If we didn't realize by that point that it wasn't our day then we certainly did when Mauro put the ball wide of the open net.

Tiring in the sun against a very young and fit opposition the Thirds gave up 2 goals towards the end of the match as they pushed for the equalizer. The first was a lovely finish from all of 25 yards. So it finished 4-1 but we can take credit from giving the league leaders a real run for their money.


Team: Zac; J Moore, Schlatter, Eric, Pek; Bobby, Vincent, Gavin, Donald; Okey, Mauro
Subs (all played): J Brown, J Wine, Derek, Darrell, Mackers, Bernfeld, Cesar.