A vicious cocktail of 6 Coopers, a positive result and a Michael Buble special on the telly has brought forward this weeks match report by approximately 17 days, given the recent efforts by the L2SMC. Loko began the now weekly task of counting heads, and the magic number this time was 12, much to the relief of the departing, last member of management, Xavi murphy. Jay Scally made a welcome return from honeymoon to bolster the troops. Redfern once again reprised their party trick of delivering their team in instalments and managed to field 11, minus the talents of Neymar and the rotund ‘Tange’ up top. Given, the extended Loko pre-match talk centred on counteracting the fearsome Neymar/Tange axis of doom, the Loko lads took to the pitch in a state of bewilderment as they looked around for a chubby lad, and a ponytailed playmaker. Alan took up the spot between the sticks behind a back four of Kerley, Paddy, Scally and Byrne. Ger was now free to return to midfield taking up the double-pivot role alongside Timmy. Fergal, Damo and Kanu pushed forward in support of Tommy. Smeall stayed warm on the sideline ahead of his 20th minute introduction. Right from the start, a Murphy ball found Fergal who whipped in a cross that unsettled the Redfern back 4. Displaying a lot more fight from the team that got creamed 4 nil at Tempe 2 months previous, Loko capitalised on a shellshocked Refern team in the tenth minute. A free whipped in from the right hand side by Ger, somehow dropped to the unmarked Timmy in the box. He made no mistake as the ball was rifled to the net. Loko were forced to deal with a Redfern onslaught for the remainder of the second half. The off the ball running of the Redfern front 3 caused Loko a lot of problems and the equaliser duly arrived in the 30th minute. Now ESFA leagues traditionally operate on the unwritten rule that the attacker is offside unless he is 5 yards onside. This memo was never received by the 60 something man in the middle. Nestled a good stone’s throw offside, the Redfern attacker latched onto a through ball and chipped the onrushing Alan. Clearly a scholar of the Pippo Inzaghi school of positioning, the Scotsman couldn’t believe his luck as the goal was given. The next 30 seconds saw a flurry of f*cks and d*cks as the referee was given a quick refresh on the offside rule. It worked, as from the restart Fergal was blown offside from, yep you’ve guessed it, 5 yards onside. If ever a team needed to consolidate until halftime, it was Loko. Clearly incensed by a number of outlandish decisions by the Sven Goran Eriksson lookalike, Loko lost composure. In the 40th minute another through ball saw the Redfern attacker round the keeper. Much to Loko relief, he scuffed his shot and Scally made a simple clearance…is what I should be typing right now. Unfortunatley the complete pishiness of the shot caught Scally off guard and the swinging scouse boot only succeeded in driving the ball to the roof of the net. On a day when the shaggy haired newly married saw 4,000 of his wedding photos deleted by some form of digital camera virus, the last thing he needed was to score his second goal of the season, for Redfern. The half time whistle blew, after a couple more contentious decisions from Sven G.E. Loko knew they were well in the game and sought to remedy the source of our defensive problems by adopting a sweeper, with the full backs tucking in. With Michael Buble seemingly on his final enosre, I’ll keep this simple. The opening thirty minutes saw the Loko boys play their best stuff of the season. Outbattling and outthinking their more-illustrious opponents, chance after chance fell the way of the boys in blue. The equaliser finally arrived in the 65th minute. Stopping short of dusting down the Thesaurus to find superlatives to describe Ger’s free kick, I’ll let the video below do the talking. Special mention to Kanu who won the free following another ad-lib cross country dash, with ball in tow. It was to be Kanu’s last involvement as he suffered a suspected triple fracture of the hip, knee and ankle in an innocuous looking challenge*. Fortunately initial camera angles showing him being tortured and shot were proven to be doctored. With Buble, now collecting roses from the middle-aged fanny in the crowd, the last 15 minutes were conveniently for this writer, uneventful. Redfern went down to 10. Ger hit the bar. Redfern hit the bar. Neymar looked distinctly uninterested. With Loko now down to 8 players and zero management, the coming 4 weeks promise to be interesting. With an outside chance of playoffs, the lads still have it all to play for. Glebe make the trek to Alex Oval next Sunday for the graveyard 5pm kickoff. The second half showing today was inspiring, and if Loko can bring a similar intensity next week, the 3 points will follow. *In a relieving post-script the Loko2 medical team can confirm that Kanu sprained his ankle.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 11:13:44 +0000
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