Central Park Rangers FC

Courtesy of Nikle -

Due to my late arrival I missed the first half of the reserves game but from what I am told the first half went rather smooth with even play and Ernesto burying a nice little goal. In the second half a few fluke goals put the reds down in the hole that was tough to battle back from. A pretty finish by UK Matt (chipping the keeper from 15 yards out) and a great finish from Phil off a UK Matt corner cut the lead to 5-3 however time ran out before we had the chance to battle back.

Goals: Ernesto, UK Matt, Phil

MOTM: Phil

Honorable Mention: UK Matt, BP, Willie

Reds finally pulled away with 3 points! From the sidelines the first half of play looked to be about as good as I have seen us play all year. The ball moved all over the field with simplicity and control and you could tell from the opening minutes that we were due to win this match. After Cieran decided that he was done sucking, he received a pretty ball that went from Ilija to new guy Zach, and Zach played Cieran through to be 1v1 with the goalie. Cieran faked out himself and the goalie by miss hitting the ball so badly that it hit the keeper in the hands and went in the net. I wish I had a photo of Cieran burying his face into his hands because he thought he missed the goal, and was ashamed to take claim for the 1-0 start. However moments later Cieran was played a through ball from big Rob Chilton for a nice finish this time and the Reds were ahead 2-0. Koha bounced back in the 2^nd half, and after #9 hit a pretty shot with his we saw the game go 2-1. Cieran received a nice through ball from Ilija moments later and was hacked down in the box where Ilija calmly put the pk in the corner in put the Reds up 3-1. Marko then hooked up #9 with a breakaway and Koha cut the lead to 3-2. With about 15 minutes left Koha broke through the defense again and Linehan had not much choice but to sweep the legs out from underneath the little bastard and Koha tied the game at 3 a piece. But not to worry, No Serb would be willing to lose to Albanians on this Sunday. Coach Sewards pulled a smooth move having Ilija take a late free kick outside the 18. Just before the kick, Sewards reached into his bag of Balkan motivational speeches and shouted a bit of encouragement to our Serbian striker: “They stole your land, don’t let them steal this victory too.” Ilija calmly stepped to the mark and buried a ball in the bottom right hand corner for the Reds to pull out a huge win. Thank you to Zach and Johnny for joining the team and playing well on both ends of the field. BIIIIIIIIIIG shout out to Big T for filling in the net and having an extremely solid game. Special shout out to CATHY for making back to back appearances hanging out with the team…that’s a bold move, keep it up.

Goals: Cieran x2, Ilija x2

MOTM: Ben

Honorable Mention: Cieran, Ilija, Zach, Big T