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How? How does a side that is clearly
dominating possession and chances on goal for 45 minutes
end up 5-0 losers? Through a combination of appalling
finishing, terrible defending, individual howlers and
dubious officiating.
Chequer were on top for
most of the first half with Gareth Dutton and Simon Friend-James
winning the central midfield battle. Several clear one-on-one
chances were created, but George Trafford and Warren Partridge
were wasteful on a number of occasions, and the Azzurri
keeper made two good saves when a goal seemed certain.
Towards the end of the half Chequer had a clear penalty
appeal turned down when an Azzurri defender grabbed George
around the neck to pull him off the ball!
Azzurri showed good skill
up front, but without threatening the Chequer goal. However,
totally against the run of play they scored with just
a few minutes of the first half remaining. A quick free
quick was delivered to the far post while Chequer were
still organising defensively. Simon Friend-James was out-jumped
and Azzurri headed past Matt Bailey to give them a thoroughly
undeserved half time lead.
Chequer emerged for the
second half confident of claiming the three points having
been the more creative side. Their confidence was shattered
within ten minutes of the restart by two quick goals.
The first was a howler by keeper Matt Bailey who rushed
off his line to claim a floated free kick only to see
the strong wind take it over his head and into the back
of the goal.
The third goal was a killer,
Chequer stepping out to leave the Azzurri forward line
clearly offside, clearly to everyone except the referee
that is, who allowed the Azzurri forward to receive the
ball a yard offside and turn and finish.
Even at this stage Chequer
had an opportunity to get back in the game, but Warren
blazed over from eight yards with just the keeper to beat.
A fourth goal from Azzurri
came halfway through the second half. This time Aaron
Comber and Christian Young both failed to defend a ball
into the corner that everyone thought was going out. The
wind held it up though, Azzurri chased it, pulled it back
and with both Tom Pickford and Richard Wilkie failing
to cover Azzurri added a simple fourth.
For the last twenty minutes
Azzurri exploited the growing gaps in the Chequer midfield,
where the heart and fight had gone out of the side who
could not believe the scoreline. The Azzurri number five
began to dominate the centre of the park, and Richard
Wilkie was lucky to escape a booking for a deliberate
and cynical body check that sent him tumbling after he
had skipped past several challenges.
Chequer created a few half
chances, but it was no surprise when a fifth goal arrived
as the Chequer by now had no shape or cohesion. There
was a strong suspicion of offside for Azzurri's last goal,
but to be honest it made no difference at this stage.
Football truly is a game
of two halves, and the Chequer should have had a healthy
lead to defend at half time. Azzurri, however showed they
have a lot of tenacity as well as quality to despatch
us in the second half.
Chequer need to be able
to put a stronger squad out against quality sides like
Azzurri. There is no consistency to the team, due to injuries
and suspensions, and not enough quality in the starting
line ups let alone the bench to win games when the going
gets tough. You can only make the most of what you have,
and recently that hasn't been good enough with three defeats
in a row, thirteen goals conceded and only one scored
in the last two outings.
As a note of interest,
may I suggest to Azzurri that they find a new linesman,
they are a good side and can do better than relying on
a linesman whose flag goes up 9/10 times that you receive
possession in their half of the field. It didn't affect
the result but such brazen cheating is uncalled for.
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