Favourites inflict heavy defeat

Saturday 27^th September

vs Hudson Hibs 0-9

Team: Ciarán; Louis, Elliot, Caleb, Josh; Sam; Mark, Ollie, Jacob, Adam; Joe. Subs: Cormac, Dylan, Tom.

Congratulations to Hudson Hibs: a fine team with a faster, stronger, more determined display that did not need the unsporting gesture of sending their keeper up for a late corner to ensure an overwhelming victory over the boys.

The rot started in the first minute: Ciarán may have been slow off his line to the two forwards but no slower than the back line that allowed them to break behind them.  In fact, it took them the 9^th minute to properly break out of their own half, apart from a rare foray down the right by Joe.  By this time, they were two down – Ciarán had made a good save but a free header from the resulting corner doubled the score.

That goal summed up the display: good as the Hibs are, if they are not closed down, they will have all the time in the world to set up chance after chance. And they did. Four behind at the break, despite Ciarán pulling off a handful of saves and showing confident handling, the closest the boys  came to a goal was Joe’s long range free kick that deflected off the wall; Josh’s corner was hooked wide by Ollie.

Joe was isolated up front, despite some tireless work by Ollie in midfield, and the second half followed the pattern of the first: a goal within a minute as they raced behind the defence, leaving Ciarán exposed. A quality touch to control and open up the defence from Jacob in the 47^th minute sent Dylan racing away only for the defender to block his shot but that was as good as it got in the second half.

It says a great deal about the team’s performance that the keeper was made Man of the Match: without a series of blocks and saves – one flying effort late in the second half was worthy of a better game – the score line could have been embarrassing.  That they didn’t concede in the last ten minutes is to the credit of Ciarán, his right hand post (twice) and a bit more bite in midfield from late changes that saw Louis and Caleb put up more of a challenge to the Hibs’ attack.

Looking at times beaten before they started, the lack of defensive shape and uncertainty in the tackle made the job at lot easier for their opponents.  The boys will play teams who are better than they are, they just don’t need to make it so easy for them.