Monday 16 November 2009

D&C ATHLETIC vs Disley A.F.C 2nds


D&C Athletic 3 - 3 Disley 2nds
Sunday 15th November
Lacey Green

The poor weather of week decided to disappear for the day and gave way to the finest rivalry in all of Disley. Despite the need for some major greenkeeping the pitch was in a good condition for D&C's passing style of football. And this was evident all game.

D&C started the brighter and held Disley in their own half for most of the first half restricting them to 30 yard pot shots. Disley adopted a tough football approach and were lucky to get away without bookings early on after chopping down Dave Slater, Gaz Harley and Atem Eyong repeatedly.

Nice passing moves saw Harley and Nick Kiefer both have one on one chances that were unfortunately squandered. Nevertheless, D&C pressed further and it took its toll on 30mins when a Tom Owen free kick was crossed in towards Eyong who headed back across the goal for Kiefer to spin 180degrees and slot the ball in the net from 5 yards out.

Just before the half Jordan Clough took the ball down the left hand side and beat Disleys slow RB only to be brought down in the area. Player/Manager Andrew Barlow stepped up to take the pen and slotted it in the bottom right corner only to see the referee was talking to a player. On the re-take he went the same way and the keeper guessed correctly.

Going into the half there was only one team playing and Davies in net had very little to do. HT 1-0

D&C came out to the second half slow and were punished after a few minutes when over committed defending was undone by a flicked header through to a loan Disley striker who took it round Davies to score the equaliser. Despite the goal, there was a strong appeal for offside which was ignored by the very poor referee.

The standard of officiating got worse as Disley players continued to push the boundaries of the definition of the word 'foul'. Disgusting tackle after disgusting tackle went unpunished and this temporarily prevented D&C from passing the ball around. Eventually, a breakthrough came from a 55 minute cross from Clough to the back post where Eyong controlled and slotted home for his 9th goal of the season.

D&C didnt rest on their laurels and keep pushing. They took a 3-1 lead when Nick Hughes lobbed the keeper from a very tight angle with a deft header. D&C had more chances from 65min sub Matt Wharton go untaken.

Disley got a second shortly after when again aggressive defending meant that too many defenders went to the man with the ball leaving only Barlow to defend two players in the box waiting for the cross. Disley's other striker then headed the ball home for 3-2. Again, the player was virtually stood next to Davies and was clearly offside but no decision to reflect that.

The game then started to get even uglier as the referees complete refusal to card anyone meant he was losing control. A disgusting tackle on Harley which eventually lead to his exit from the game (replaced by Paul Watkins) went only punished by a free kick. However, when Slater complained to the ref, a Disley player took it upon himself to shove him in the face. This is a straight red in any football rule book, yet the player only received a yellow.

With the last kick of the game Disley launched a ball over the top and, not learning from previous experiences, D&C stopped as the player was clearly 5 yards offside. The ref didn't call it and the player continued to beat Davies and score the equaliser. FT 3-3

While D&C did miss chances, and the defending should have prevented the goals, they can take solace in the fact that the refeering was decidedly poor and they were lucky to have not had more injuries.

Many will say that this is Sunday League and teams should be tougher and the ref even commented saying "we clearly watch too much premiership football". Nevertheless, the rule book is the same at every level and a shove in the face is a red card.


GK - Matt Davies
RB - Andrew Barlow
LB - Dean Couling (C)
CB - Tom Owen
CB - Nick Hughes
RM - Martyn Barlow
LM - Jordan Clough
CM - David Slater
CM - Gaz Harley (Paul Watkins, 70)
CF - Nick Kiefer (Matt Wharton, 65)
CF - Atem Eyong

Unused Subs: Mike Burt

TO

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