FC Irlande - Matchday 23

Laeken Tennis 1 - 1 FC Irlande

Four days after beating them with ease, we found that LT at their place are much more difficult to break down. On this particular Wednesday night this was down mainly to two things. The first was the pitch. Not only was it small enough to be better suited to under 11s, it was also in dreadful condition. There was very little grass to be seen, and the mud that dominated was soft and sandy. In fact a significant area of one 18 yard-box was nothing but sand.

The second factor was the referee. I hesitate to blame referees, but this old geezer was far too eccentric. While he didn't call any major decisions against us, he did consistently punish our big forwards (Sigve and Sean) when there was really no foul and generally acted like a drunken Grandad. He may well have been the former.

The other very frustrating aspect of this match was that our keeper, Will, only touched the ball about three times. Sadly, one of those was after about 20 minutes of the first half when he dropped the ball and their striker tapped in to an empty net. Up to that point we had dominated, playing the same great passing football as last week, but without finding the net.

In the second half we continued to press, and Laeken continued to frustrate us. I missed one good chance with a run at goal and a dragged shot. It looked as if we were heading for a catastrophic defeat, when Sigve expertly controlled a long ball into the path of the on-rushing Yann, who neatly fired home on the half volley for his first FC Irlande goal. It was the least he deserved after another effective game in midfield, and the least we deserved after being the better side for more or less the entire match.

In the dying seconds I received a good pass from Iwan (making his first team debut), but tried to change direction rather than let the ball run across me. As it deflected off the defender I tried an audacious volley that flew high into the night.

FC Irlande: Will, Adrian (Enda), Fred, Francis, Mark, Yann, David, Kieran, Ross, Sean (Iwan), Sigve

Goal: Yann

Man of the Match: Yann and Fred - The latter cleaned up everything in defense, while the former scored a neat goal - but still can't win MotM outright.