Morningstar B 0 – 2 City and Guilds Red

We’ve experienced the highs of the Friday league and now we have the lows. Friday produced our first defeat of the season against a team who were previously in the Thursday League. Fielding some of their first team players we were always going to have tough game on our hands.

Jamie Donovan came in for me at the last moment and provided us with some Thursday team class at the back of the field. Scott MacDonald returned to the team after a few weeks out and demonstrated the commitment needed to drive this team forward, chasing every ball and making some key tackles. Idrees and Paul cameo’ed in goal and did the team proud, both having a keen eye to distribute the ball and acquitting themselves well when playing on pitch.

Salvatore came on in the second half and certainly made an impact, threading some good passes and making important runs up the left flank to support the boys up front. Jamie Goodwin as we’ve come to expect, put everything into the game and really kept the team moving forward.

On the day it was possibly a lack of cutting edge that left us empty handed. Against very good opposition the boys did the team proud and on another day we might have got something out of the game. We restricted them to very few attacks and looked the more likely to score as the game progressed – we are improving week on week. Well played boys and better luck next time.

Man of the match this week goes to Jamie Donovan for a master class in defending as the last man. Gimp of the game goes to Salvatore for his brilliant run down the left flank, playing a one-two to get himself in front of goal and to then swing and only hit air. DOH!

Morningstar FC A: LGM 1-5 MFC A

MFC A 5 - 1 LGIM


Team: Rossi, Hart (Elliott), Llupa (Donovan), Modi, Whitelaw

Scorers: Whitelaw (4), Modi

Brilliant result, well done to everyone. We deserved the win, and there could've been more but for their keeper.

I know this new formation isn't ideal we're defending, but I'm really pleased with how we coped, and good work from our keepers to make up an extra man at the back. I think we'll stick with this system for now.

Personally, I thought it was a great game to watch, particularly with Ed's dispatching of their token-diver in the second half. I haven't been publicising my MoM choices, but as the Friday team do, I think its fair that I do too. Therefore, MoM this week goes to Tom for his general destruction, and Gimp of the Game (GoG, shamelessly stolen from Chris E and the Friday team) goes to Ed, for being Ed.

Next week we make it 10! :)

Chris

Morningstar B 2 – 1 The Corps

First win of the season and first ever win for Morningstar B! Hope you enjoyed the taste of it lads as we’ll be expecting more of those!

Everyone ran their socks off and worked really hard for the team. All the hard work put into last week’s game carried over to this match and we’re looking like a real force out there. There were one or two scary moments but thanks to the heroics of Mark Laidlaw in goal we managed to close the game out.

We were unfortunate to go 1-0 down but to quote Tom Whitelaw “there’s goals in this game” and it was a matter of time before we got back into it. And what a way to do it, Robin found himself in space to the right of goal and with screams of “HIT IT!!” let rip with a half volley into the opposite corner. Peach.

We don’t settle for draws and with time rapidly running out we were chasing a winning goal. In our eagerness Jamie lost the ball in half, but did his duty to win it back. Before anyone had realised he’d sprinted down the wing and as the defender approached he squared the ball to Rob to bury the winning goal.

There was more drama to come - with seconds left on the clock Rob lost the ball just outside our area and with the striker bearing down on goal Mark Laidlaw raced off his line to make an awesome save, one of many on the day. Probably worth a mention that at 1-1 Mark made an outrageous save from a back pass that looked destined for the opposite corner of his goal - that’s one way of getting on the score sheet Salvatore ;)

Man of the match goes to Mark as nominated by the team. Gimp of the game goes to Jamie for his ‘conversion’. Two in row Jamie! ;)

Morningstar FC A: WBI 3-3 MFC A

Team: Petit, Donovan (Llupa), Hart, Whitelaw, Modi (Elliott)


Scorers: Whitelaw (2), Llupa



Another well fought game, we were unlucky not to get the win with a number of efforts coming really close. There's no doubt that had we another five minutes on the pitch, we'd have taken the win. They were losing the plot, and we were all over them.

There were some great moves again, some good one-touch stuff and I think the marking did improve. Still something to focus on though as we did get caught out a couple of times. Thanks to Andy and Ed for taking the goalkeeping responsibilities.

So at least we're off the mark now. We've certainly got no problems scoring, just need to work on keeping them out of our net a bit more ;) Well done though everyone!