DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

26 October 2003 - M&DSFL Division 8 at Morden Rec.

DCFC 0 (0)
Inter Class 'A' Reserves 0 (0)

When you look back on the great performances from the past, this has to be up there with the best of them. Those that have been with the club, would find it hard to argue that the 2-2 draw with Sherwood Achilles (lost on pens.) in the Hickey Cup, the 2-2 draw with Beddington Eagles and the great 2-1 win and 0-0 draw in the double header v. Vandyke are amongst the best performances of ours in recent times. Today's draw with Inter is up there with all of them.

Today's result came from a mixture of hard graft (and loads of it), plenty of determination and quite a bit of lady luck. There is an old saying that you make your own luck and it would be true to say that we did just that.

Inter must have hit the woodwork at least 3 times. They also dominated most of the possession, you can see why they had a 100% record before today. We can take great credit for not letting them settle, for closing them down quickly. We gave it everything we could, no one could have given much more, what a morale boosting result this is. There is no reason, that we can't now put a good run together and start a gradual climb up the table.

Other factors that made this result even more remarkable was that we were without a fit goalkeeper. Teddy did a fantastic job in goal. After turning a fierce drive over the bar, he then fractured his finger touching a cross onto the post. When he declared that he was injured, you could only see this result going one way. It was remarkable that it didn't. A combination of gritty defending, hard tackling and plenty of aggression kept things under control.

At half-time we could only look back and reflect on numerous opportunities for Inter and precious few for ourselves. On a slightly negative note it still seems that we are too scared to have a pop at goal. Inter had many opportunities, but most of their efforts failed to test our keeper.

The game was full of scraps and the second half was to see Tuffie, amongst others, getting hurt in some nasty challenges. Admittedly we were at fault for some suspect challenges ourselves. We conceded many free-kicks in dangerous positions. Surprisingly Teddy was rarely tested in goal. Most efforts were blasted over, or against the wall.

As the game wore on, it looked as if there was only going to be one outcome to this contest. Surely we couldn't hold on, Ted was in trouble, Inter were hitting the post, having efforts cleared off the line - the defending was as good as it's ever been as we threw bodies in there to prevent Inter scoring and it worked. Then with time running out, a cross into the box was converted, although the Inter striker was offside. The linesman rightly flagged and this was met with a nasty reaction from the majority of the Inter players. Several players could easily have been booked, but when questioned by the referee about the fierce reactions, the line-o luckily for them, kept quiet.

It's a shame the game ended the way it did, but we can take great pride for achieving a great result.