DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

2 February 2002 - Morden & District League Division 10 (at Abbey Rec.)

Merton Rangers Reserves 1 (0)
89
DCFC 3 (2)
Kirk 27, o.g. 45, Nick 68

Damien (on the ball) looks like he could be a real threat for Player Of The Season

Last weeks result against Kingston Cosmos was a bit of a surprise. Too many of us assumed that their position in the division would make it an easy win and we were proved wrong. Maybe this does great credit to the league as a whole. Hear we are in the bottom division and yet a number of sides are more than worthy of that tag. Going by league positions, today's match was absolutely crucial. Too many of us will remember last season, how after going on a good run, we let it all slip and faded away at the end of the season. That happened exactly a year ago (four defeats in February), so we couldn't afford to let the same thing happen again today.

More often then not, we start off well and today was no exception. With 90 seconds gone, we created the first opportunity when Kirk forced the keeper into a save. Rangers also had an early chance, when Chara (who was mainly redundant) pulled off a good stop with his legs.

It would be fair to say that we were better in the first half then we were in the second. The defending was better, which is encouraging, Cem was looking more organised, James is starting to find some of the form that saw him reach no.2 in the charts and Ed took to the left back position, like a duck to water. The creativity element of our play, again looked good, Damien has been causing the opposition defence, all sorts of problems this season and today he kept that going. However the general distribution was mediocre, with the final ball, usually being over hit.

After we generally controlled the play, Kirk scored with another beauty, if we were to have a goal of the season competition, it would already be a very difficult task. Kirk has already hit one beauty this season (v. Nuwood Reserves) and today's exquisite chip from 25 yards out into the top corner is up there with the best of them. The second goal was a tad fortuitous. An own goal, which came on a weekend which saw Sunderland score three - there must be something in the air.

It was the second half which saw us slowly ebb away. The 2-0 half-time lead seemed to breed complacency. Rangers were finding our defence fairly inviting at times and had chances to get back in it, the best of the lot was when their forward was on for goal with only Chara to beat, but opted for Rugby's equivalent of a conversion. We still kept battling though and Nick who wasn't getting much joy up until now, scored a goal, very similar to Kirk's - chipping the keeper from outside the box, perhaps he didn't want to feel left out - another contender for goal of the season. We eventually got our comeuppance in the end, when Chara who was just starting to contemplate his clean sheet (his usually a messy boy), got lobbed. The goal was in all honesty a fair consolation. With little time left, Rangers were all up for a second goal, but they just left it too late.

We meet again next week. We'll have to work just as hard if we want the same result again. Today's result sees us go top of division 10 and a win next week, will guarantee we stay there (for the time being anyway).