North London Tara 1 - Dutch Lions 1

The match kicked off late to our original ref sustaining an injury. NLT’s Damo (and stand in goalie for the day) impressively had the nets up at 9:50 and the weather was ideal for our meeting. As far as the table was concerned this game didn’t mean anything but never the less both sides didn’t just turn up. The lions went one nil up after a driven corner my Paulo was met by Grant.  That’s 2 for Batesy this year not including goal of the season contender against Broadway Celtic.

Yasser made his first full debut and was asked to fill in for the absent Julian. This was not a easy job but he was equal to the task. Yasser D ran his socks off in the centre of the park. Hamzeh had a fantastic game on the wing providing great width and cover throughout. Skipper Pedro filled in all over the park and together we really took the game to Tara.  Sloppy defending by us was punished with a Taras equaliser before the break, the less said the better in this case.  Paulo narrowly missed the bottom corner of Taras net with an almighty half volley from a defensive clearance which if on target would have resulted in a certain goal. Tara found space in the final third to carve out a number of good efforts all handled superbly by Arron including a one handed save which I will never forget which denied a definite goal for the Tara. Nice one Skinny.

The second will be remembered for the glorious miss Tara’s number 11 committed. Their tricky number 11 ran on to a  ball coming straight through the centre evading our centre backs and with the ball sitting up nice he opted for power rather than accuracy and blazed a golden opportunity high a wide. We got life.

I was proud of the way the lions went about this game and thanked everyone after the match on a great effort. The fact is we threw everything at Tara but failed to unlock them with a killer pass. More Training will improve our passing and our understanding of each others abilities.

All credit to Tara who have been great to us in our first year. Damo and Liam have been great since the start and next year we look forward to further battles with these boys. Now we take on St Andrews Youth in the charity cup.  Be ready boys for another great contest and don’t forget your shooting boots.