FC Irlande - Matchday 9

FC Irlande 3 – 1 Enghiem

The Loch Ness monster scored a rare goal as FC Irlande maintained their position at the top of the table with a comfortable win over second-bottom Enghiem, writes Ross Grainger, pretending that he’s writing for the BBC.
Irlande took the lead in the first half when Garcia coolly converted a penalty after Lepisto was upended by Enghiem’s keeper. After missing a host of chances the Irish doubled their lead in the second half thanks to veteran midfielder Cryans. Their handsome number 10 made the game safe with a masterful and grossly under-appreciated solo effort after latching onto what Gomez claimed was a pass but was actually a clearance.
Although the visitors pulled one back late on it was not enough to deny Irlande their seventh win in 9 matches.
The hooped shirts started the game brightly under a bright blue sky and were quickly in the ascendancy. De Groodt struck the bar after clever play from Garcia; Welslau – playing in the centre of defence in the unexplained absence of Rasmasun – forced a good save from the busy Enghiem keeper, who also did well to thwart a stinging effort from Grainger a few minutes earlier.
The breakthrough came with seven minutes of the half remaining. An innocuous clearance found Lepisto in the box after hesitation in the visitor’s defence. As he nicked the ball away he was upended and the result was inevitable.
Up stepped Garcia (much to the chagrin of Welslau) to expertly drive the ball into the bottom corner for his second penalty of the season. It was the least Irlande deserved.
With the visitors creating little at the back thanks to the sterling work of Elliot, Welslau and debutant Doherty, Irlande were free to pile forward in search of more goals. Grainger was thwarted again, and several other promising openings came to nothing. It was left to the soon-to-be-veteran Cryans to step forward from what the opposition claimed was an offside position to waltz into the box and curl the box majestically to the keeper’s near post and into the net. It was one of those rare FC Irlande moments that make life worth living.
With the game safe and the opposition in disarray it seemed certain that Irlande would add to their lead. They did shortly after when Gomez, lazily hanging around in defence, curled the ball up the left wing into the path of Grainger. The enigmatic striker breezed past his marker with pace to burn and curled the ball under the hapless keeper.
A few minutes later the same iconoclastic egoist was presented with a simple chance from Garcia, who should really have scored himself. Six yards out with only a defender on the line to beat he skied the ball after the pass took a nasty bobble. The crowd roared with ironic delight.
Amidst all the mocking of a perfectly acceptable miss the Irish took their eye off the ball, so to speak, and allowed Enghiem a scarcely deserved consolation goal a few minutes from the end. Still, another win ahead of the crunch match next week against the league champions, Brussels British.

FC Irlande: Chris, Francis, Fred, Alec, Mark, Christophe, Peter, Kieran, David, Ross, Pauli

Goals: David (pen), Mark, Ross

Man of the Match: Francis – An assured debut at right back from the wannabe pilot.