DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

7 December 2003 Mrs Hickey Cup Round 2 at Dundonald Road Recreation Ground

DCFC 3 (0)
Ed 6, Tuffie 43, Leroy 59
FC Torres 0 (0)

'Squeaky clean' Harry played no part in the fracas

More often than not, the effects of suffering a heavy defeat can have a positive effect and it certainly seemed that way, as there was a buzz around Dundonald, something that was clearly lacking in our last home fixture against Old Wimbledonians.

Tuffie was as aspiring as ever in his team talk, a mixture of humorous statements, coupled with good constructive advice, uplifted the spirits. It is something we chronically needed, especially when you look back to last weeks horrendous display against the Royals.

The conditions certainly helped to make this a more entertaining tie, compared to some of our recent clashes. Both sides got off to bright start, it was Torres that posed the first threat, as a free kick right on the edge of the box was either well taken, or luckily found itself in the top corner, for a second we thought we were a goal down, but in fact it was an indirect free kick - panic over.

Ed loves the Hickey Cup and maybe he was savouring one of the best individual goals in the clubs history for this moment, he must have been at least 35 yards out, when he picked up a loose ball, flicking it up in the process and volleyed it right into the bottom corner. A fantastic strike. His amazing record of scoring from distance has been further enhanced. This must have been a massive sucker punch for Torres, having momentarily looked like they were a goal up, they were now a goal down.

We were generally playing well, Matty was battling with Ed in midfield and the defence was holding up well, with Tony as solid as ever in goal. We were generally asking more questions, Torres were trying to catch us out with a number of efforts from range, nearly all of these went over. Ed was unlucky not to score later on, as his effort was headed off the line. We nearly got caught out ourselves at the back as a cross dangerously trickled across the face of the goal.

Our only noticeable mistakes in the first half were that we were conceding free kicks in dangerous areas. A couple of bad challenges were dangerously close to the penalty box, luckily Torres didn't take advantage of these opportunities.

Our persistence eventually paid off, as Tuffie couldn't believe his luck when the keeper kindly passed to him, he then from an angle neatly curled the ball into the top corner. He said it was a fluke, but then Tuffie always was a modest chap.

At half time things looked very encouraging. It seemed hard to see how we could lose this lead, but then we have had plenty of instances in the past where we have let 2 goal leads go and ended up losing the game, so there was no way we could be complacent. We carried on more or less where we left off from the first half and Leroy who was quiet up until now, killed the game off with a composed strike from the edge of the box. This was to be the last good moment of the game, as sadly things turned sour from this point. A Torres player unsportingly spat at one of our players, things got worse and the next thing you knew was that nearly everyone got involved in a massive brawl. It was the worst brawl that we have ever been involved in. It was that bad, that this game could easily have got abandoned.

Unfortunately our 3 subs came on the pitch and along with the 2 worst offenders on the pitch, this meant that 5 players were shown the red card!

It took 15 minutes for the ref to sort all the mess out. When the game did get started again, it seemed that everyone wanted it to end. The football was sloppy and it was a relief when the final whistle went. Despite the massive brawl, everyone shook hands after the game. It seemed quite obvious that a couple of individuals caused it and ruined the game. It was surprising, as FC Torres are one of the last opponents you would expect this to happen to.

We can't afford to keep finding ourselves in these situations, finding ourselves in the next round of the Hickey Cup is pleasing, news that we play Kingsway next isn't, but then if you're going to win it, you've got to beat the best, so who knows?