#AA4 v Maccabi A 2-2 #DalesTales
Sponsored by Steggles – We’re Stegglers for quality
Maybe Maro Itoje can play for us??
With most of the squad being from Europe, the team met on Sunday without its usual zest and bounce. The shock waves of #Brexit had reverberated all the way to the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney with most us not so sure what Brexit was let alone what it meant to us plucky expats 10,560 miles away, doing it tough whilst sipping on our lattes and skinny caps on our harbour side football pitch. But then we remembered, England had won the rugby, a three nil whitewash over the best of losers Australia, in their own backyard – the zest and bounce was back!
The apparent unhappiness of ESFA referees thankfully didn’t extend to us and the referees whistle singled the start of the top for clash against Maccabi. Dunbar were still suffering the effects of their own Brexit with 8 players away on holiday and were thankful to Ash Ure and his AA5bs for helping fill the gaps.
Dunbar in an unusual 4 4 2 formation started well but soon fell behind when I was fooled/rubbish and a crossed ball crept in at the far post. Some swearing followed but ultimately, 0-1 Maccabi. The opposition in blue were working hard and finding joy down our flanks with crosses and freekicks causing some panic in box but no goal. The boys from The Reg equalised however when Abhi popped up to score his 3rd in 2 games and take the lead in the Abhi v Kate goalscoring chats.
Half time came and went and the game fell into a familiar pattern with Dunbar dominating possession but lacking the cutting edge up front (maybe not a surprise with our entire strike force away doing god knows what). Then disaster struck, despite passing the ball for what seemed like eternity, a loose pass went straight to a Maccabi player who took two touches before rifling the ball into the back of the net.
A few tactical and positional changes followed and this served to get Dunbar back in the game. Mounting attack after attack without really making any real impression on the Maccabi goal (sound familiar England????) but then after another period of pressure, the ball dropped to returning Scouseman Stephen Murphy who pulled the trigger from outside the box and his swerving effort fooled the keeper and the scores were level again.
Try as we might, we couldn’t grab the winner that our play warranted and the game finished in a stalemate. Following the game all eyes were trained on the ESFA website with the boys eagerly awaiting the result of the Maccabi B v Coogee game to find out if any favours had been done for us. That result, a forfeit to Coogee was disappointing but we hadn’t expected anything other than a Coogee win.
So next week, the cavalry arrive on their white horses and we will be back to 15 of our own players (including some strikers) for the top of the table clash with Coogee.
Spectator watch:
A still drunk Sarah Ferris
A still drunk Gordon Johnston
Annabelle Botterill
Callan Botterill who has learnt to crawl and his dribbling is well up there with his dads!