Giving Up?

UCFL Div. 3
16 May 2012

AFC Justice 5 – 0 Terenure FC 3rds

Five games in eleven days would be a test for any professional side and it certainly proved a test too many for us on Wednesday evening. AFC Justice came in to the game fresh, after a few weeks without a game, and had a full squad of players available. We just about scraped together eleven players and most were tired or carrying knocks from the hectic schedule of games.


Having said that the first half was relatively tight, once again we were facing a physically bigger opposition and were getting beaten in a lot of the physical battles but we did try to play some football and made a few half chances. Justice were having the better of it though and they had one cleared off the line from a corner before taking the lead with a simple ball over the top, Shane did well to save from the first one on one, but as we hesitated the Justice right winger reacted to the rebound just outside the area and finished well. There was some niggle in the game as the ref failed to take control of situations but it never got too out of hand and Justice took a one goal lead into half time.

In the second half Justice really started to take over the game and were having a lot of joy with balls over and through our defence. They scored a couple of goals in quick succession which completely killed us off and tiredness and frustration meant we were getting annoyed with each other and losing focus on the game. That was the really disappointing aspect as we’ll usually put up a good battle no matter how much things are going against us.

With Justice having the ability to bring on fresh and good substitutes they really hammered home their advantage, the highlight for them probably the substitute right wingers goal as he beat a couple of players and buried his chance. We were reduced to ten men before the end just to compound the misery.

Two games remain; Glasnaion on Saturday, who need to win to finish second, and Phoenix on Monday, who may need to win to avoid relegation if results don’t go their way on Saturday, that’ll take us up to a crazy seven games in eighteen days so the tired bodies will be glad to see the end. One win from the two will mean we finish in the top half which would be some reward for a season that has been about building a new team and introducing a lot of new players to the club.