Match Report - 6th January 2008

The day did not start well for Headstone when they arrived at the wrong pitch and only arrived at the new venue 5 min before kick off. St Joseph's were Div 2 Champions last year only losing one game. This year has been more difficult having lost 3 and won 3. This change in form had mainly been down to the loss of certain key players although they had won their last 3 games. St Joseph's we know have a number of good players that would get into most teams so we knew that it would be a hard game.

The game started at a frantic pace as you would expect from a local derby. Headstone though got into their game quicker and St Joseph's were finding it difficult to cope with the movement of Michael and Liam up front. The first chance fell to Liam after a lovely one two with Michael left the St Jo’s defence flat footed. Unfortunately Liam pulled his shot wide. The pairing of Ryan and Tyrell in midfield was too strong for St Jo's. St Jo's were finding it hard to get into the Headstone half. Ryan and Tyrell were able to dictate the play. St Jo’s could not breakdown the boys in the middle and when ever possible tried the long ball tactic. This season we have seen many teams try this tactic but with Joey’s and Luke’s pace and strength it was proving to be a fruitless tactic. St Jo’s were unable to get a clear chance for the first 20 min and their one shot on goal was from a 35 yard free kick. Having a goalkeeper as good as Jack gives confidence to the entire team. Jack caught the ball easily and immediately gave to the ball to Josh to run it out of the defence. St Jo's were slow to react and Josh had made the halfway line before being challenged. Josh passed to Altin who used his pace to drive past two players and thread the ball into the area. Tyrell was quickest to react and push aside the challenge of the centre half to drive the ball into the corner of the goal, 1-0. St Jo's reacted well and started to play more flowing football but the final ball was never good enough.

St Jo’s won a corner and their excellent centre half came up for the corner. We have played St Jo’s before and knew that he was the target man. Headstone won the corner and James passed the ball wide quickly to Tyrell who carried the ball 50 metres noticing that St Jo’s had decided to leave a one on one situation with our forwards. Tyrell passed the ball to Liam who used his pace to move away from the defender to drive the ball past the diving keeper. St Jo's tried to push forward but the gap between their midfield and defence was being exploited by quick balls from Headstone. St Jo’s manager was getting quite vocal by this point and made it very clear to his defence that they needed to pick Michael up since he was always drifting into space. The third goal followed shortly after. Sam won possession on the left passing to ball to Ryan who went past two players before passing to Liam who hit it first time into the top corner.

Half time 3-0 the boys came in only to over hear the opposition manager tell his team that Headstone were pony and how could they be losing to such a poor side. No need for a half time talk the boys new what needed to be done. St Jo's came out with a different formation 3-5-2 and started much better than in the first half. Headstone though did not panic and carried on trying to play their football. Shormari and Babak had come on just before half time for Josh and Altin and once they had composed themselves Headstone started to regain control in the midfield. St Jo’s are a good side and played their best football of the match during this patch. Whilst they had a lot of possession in the midfield the ball never got past our defence. At that point Headstone made a few tactical changes with Sam coming off after a fine game and Josh returning and Tyrell and Liam switching positions. Fresh legs against St Jo's midfield stopped the progress and it was good to see Josh ghosting past players and delivering excellent balls to the forwards. Tyrell’s physical presence caused problems with their defence. Liam started to cause major problems to the right side of their midfield and before long he scored a fine solo effort caring the ball 50 metres before placing the ball into the back of the net. Headstone continued to push forward and at times held onto possession excellently moving the ball from right to left. The fifth goal from Babak came from a corner. Shortly afterwards following the best move of the game Tyrell was put clear through only to miss by some margin.

Overall a good performance, one striker scoring a hatrick, one striker involved in approach play for all 5 goals, two goals from midfield and a clean sheet. St Jo’s will cause major problems for teams this season and in patches were as good as anything we have seen this season.

Overall a good day.