DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

9 February 2003 - Morden & District League Division 10 (at Dundonald Road Rec.)

DCFC 2 (1)
Richie 20, Springy 63
Merton Rangers Reserves 1 (1)
9

What the heck, it's only a game, some of us have got to work tomorrow.

So with just 11 league games gone, we've already set a club record of 8 wins in the Morden & District League, we realistically look now as if we can better our 11 league wins from the 96/97 season in the West Fulham League, but hey did we make hard work of it or what ? Despite the fact that we generally dominated the game on possession, we were still fortunate to come away and win this close encounter.

We got off to a fairly lively start, but were let down by some very cumbersome defending. Rangers were more than happy to make the most of a dodgy clearance from Rob early on, as his kick from Shirin's back pass was kicked low and only just cleared the penalty area and subsequently fell straight to the opposing striker. Rangers said thank you very much and were in front.

The last time we played on this pitch, we put on a poor performance against title favourites Roundshaw, it was starting to look that if we weren't careful history might well repeat itself.

Having only just played Rangers last week, it was always going to be interesting to see how similar our performance would be. The pitch was always going to mean that it was going to be a different game, what with it being heavy, although we have played on worse pitches this season. The outcome of this, looked that our passing game was going to be hampered, but in all fairness, we did well to not let it degrade our performance too much. There was some neat passing being played, Damien seems to be the man who can make things happen and today his combination of pace and neat control, helped to give us the edge. We seem to have a lot of possession and not get our rewards for it, today's game was no exception. When we did have attempts on goal, they were too often aimed straight at the keeper and with not a lot of pace. The conditions didn't help though.

Richie got us back in it with 20 minutes gone, when he demonstrated a great combination of skill and strength to turn two defenders and lift the ball over an outstretched keeper. When you reflect on the rest of the first half, although we had the majority of the possession, we didn't do a lot with it, a couple of penalty appeals and long range shots was about all. Rangers on the other hand, played the counter-attacking game, generally soaking up the pressure and then using their forwards to break quickly, we didn't really look fully at ease with this - something to work on perhaps.

The second half for us was a lot better. We were more in control and this game seemed to look similar to our narrow victory over Mitcham Strollers in December. The pitch was starting to churn up and we had to dig deep and battle hard. There's no problem with us creating opportunities, but sometimes we look clueless when it comes to the finishing. We do all the work to get the ball in the danger zone, only to fizzle out at the end, on another day we would be punished for this. Luckily in the second half, our defending got better, as we started to not let anything silly happen, which was good as Rangers always looked ready to take anything on offer.

Eventually we got it and it was the man they call Springy that hit the winner, as he managed to kill off another one of those mad scrambles. We then pushed for another to seal it and can consider ourselves not to get it, as Richie forced the keeper into a couple of good saves, firstly with an overhead kick, which the keeper stretched high to claim and then a glancing header, which again the keeper did very well to push wide for a corner.

A bit of support from Real Dundonald, Jim and Wife Lindsay, may of helped to keep us going. It's always easy being critical watching from the sidelines, but one thing that you couldn't criticise today was the determination to keep going for the whole 90 minutes. The team spirit is there and as long as you've got that, you're always in with a chance.