Claddagh Ring Conquered

The Claddagh Ring 1- Dutch Lions 4

Playing against the Claddagh Ring for the first time we set out to play our game and not allow them to impose on us.

Previous results from the Claddagh Ring saw Gwalia bang 10 past them with no reply and then they go and beat the good starters Colindale Athletic  3-2.

We started a little shaky with them getting behind us a couple of times with the wind assisting almost every pass. We settled and Paulo came close when he screwed a shot two foot away from the left post from outside the box. Jabor scored our first when he cleverly filled in as the third striker in a move I honestly cannot remember. The early goal calmed us but didn’t distract the Claddagh as much as we’ve seen others teams in the past. The Claddagh Ring had limited shots but none really tested Arran in the first half.

Our second came shortly after Pedro had a one on one with the keeper and failed to capitalise, O’Keeffe pinched the ball high up in midfield and poked it to Paulo, with me making the decoy run to the left pulling their defence apart he pushed it into the opposite right side, straight into the path of Carlos who Cooley passed the ball in the net, 2-0 and cruising.

Half time tea did the trick and our third was created with O’Keeffe placing a wind assisted ball over the towering defender, with Carlos anticipating this is again slotted home for his second. We conceded our goal because of Noel (again)

An attempted chest back to Arran from 3 yards out in a crowed six yard box was slammed home from the Claddagh Ring.

Our forth was also supplied in a similar vein to the third. Grant placed another long ball into the path of Carlos and he made no mistake knowing his first hat-trick for the lions awaited him. Well done Teves.

I thought the Claddagh Ring had some good players who liked to pass the ball. The game did get a little heated at times and perhaps this could have been avoided. They worked hard and a lot of them limped off the park after finding it a hard physical contest. They maintained there spirits late on and have the right idea. They are a credit to the league, Good luck fellas.

The game may be remembered for the trigger happy linesman-ship, but to be fair I couldn’t really argue with many of them from where I was but after a while it seemed to get silly. We will work on this.

Paulo’s Audacious shot from the second half kick off was amazing. Did the keeper flick it over? it was a bullet. What an Incredible effort from a man who has shown such dedication to the team. Keep plugging away P.

Goal from The Kick Off Courtesy of FC United

I was very impressed by Ahmed and Pedro, they showed great composure in the middle today, Hamzah was solid, Grant lead well and Jabors work rate was fantastic. Peter came close with a directed header from 10 yards going over the bar. Subs Yasser and Danny done well to keep the momentum up.

Well done today team. I was very pleased with todays solid performance that didn’t really push us out of third gear.

Sudbury Inn next week at the Den, another win and we can go second, above FSL who have cup duties. What more motivation do you need?