Gower Allstars squad to face Submarine - 1st Rnd MA Cup

Paley
Capone
Gladstone
Stiefel
Glyn
Chittenden
Klinger
Ricky
Renne
Mitchell
Durrant
Kelly
Medley


£5 - Market 9.30am, KO 10.00am

See you there.

Music Choice vs Gower Allstars - match report

Gower Allstars made a meal of what became an epic match against bottom of the league Music Choice.

At 0-0, Paley pulls off one of the saves of the season, reacting and diving low, to a good Choice header, and keeps the scores even.

Allstars go 1-0 up through a bullet shot from Botterill, and it soon became 2-0 when Blandy flicked in (Kanu style) a perfect cross from Durrant.

Carelessness with marking on a corner let Choice have a free volley at the far post, to make it an unjustified 2-1 after 30 mins, but order was restored when Blandy volleyed in a rocket from 14 yards, giving the keeper no hope.

More chances ensued with Botterill and Mitchell dominating the centre of midfield and Blandy and Durrant giving the Choice full backs a nightmare.

First half finished 3-1 – and should have been 6-1.

The second half started in the same vein, with Blandy and Medley causing all sorts of problems in attack, and how Allstars didn’t extend their lead will remain one of the mysteries of the season.

But complacency set in toward the end of the match. One bad mistake gave a goal away, to make it 3-2, and this lead to another shortly after (when Gowers were down to 10-men due to injury) and a mix-up between three players, let Choice have a shot, which ended up in the top corner, levelling the scores at 3-3, with 6 minutes to go.

With Outback having beaten Red Star moments earlier, 3pts from this game was an absolute must, and with 6 minutes to go, it was going to be hard to find.

Queue a goal mouth scramble, shots, blocks, headers, chips, and the ball eventually falls to Medley, who somehow finds a gap between 10 players in the box, and scores the winner.

4-3 – Allstars win.

3pts, and leading the league even stronger now….

MOTM = Whole team played so well, especially Blandy, Botterill, and Medley who were constant threats, but for me, Mitchell had an outstanding game, everything he did was class, breaking play up superbly, allowing Allstars to turn defence into attack. Well done.

Boys, this championship is ours for the taking.

League standing is as follows:-

Gower played 8 with 21 pts
Outback played 9 with 19 pts
TPR played 9 with 16 pts
Virgin played 9 with 16 pts
Red Star played 8 with 15 pts

We still have to play Outback, who are right on our backs, TPR, and Red Star is Sunday week 3rd Feb. I don’t need to tell you how massive that game is for the title. Cant wait. Bring it on.

10 Men Phoenix Lose Out Again To Groucho

20-Jan 08

Phoenix 0 – 2 Groucho

A very frustrating afternoon for Phoenix ended in defeat, as for the second time this season they were down to 10 men against Groucho.

It wasn’t a vintage phoenix display but despite the absence of several key players, Gowers created a number of very good chances. Muffdog & Jon Hanna battled hard in the centre of the park against a packed 5 man Groucho midfield &, although never really dominating possession enough, Phoenix looked dangerous, with a series of chances that would have been buried on another day. The Gower team rarely looked troubled at the back but ultimately failed to make the strong wind count and went in 0-0 at half time.

Second half and Groucho had the advantage with the wind at their backs and pushed on, but the Gower back 4 looked comfortable & Groucho struggled to carve out a chance of note, with Gower looking more dangerous on the break. Joe Paley replaced his brother Jamie 10 mins into the 2nd half and fleshie moved to left wing. Soon after, a shot from the edge of the box was dipping over the Groucho keeper, who stumbled as the ball came back off the bar and, following a goalmouth scramble, was stabbed home by Lucas… only for the ref to inexplicably disallow the goal for a (phantom) foul on the keeper.

Having had a perfectly good goal denied them, Gowers luck further deteriorated when Luke pulled a muscle in his neck on 65 mins and Gowers were forced down to 10 men as they had no more subs. This was just the boost Groucho needed and eventually their tall striker found the space for an (admittedly excellent) low strike past Greg. 0-1.

A man down and playing into the wind, Gowers struggled to get back in to the game but did make some good chances to equalize with Lucas coming close and then Joe Paley being denied by a good save.

With 5 mins to play a wayward pass was latched onto by the Groucho striker who again struck it sweetly home. 0-2. Gutted.

At the end of the day, to coin a phrase, Gowers can play much better than this but have also won playing much worse. Groucho played fairly well & are a good, hard working team but ultimately a combination of some poor refereeing & the misfortune of going down to ten men with it being one of those days when we couldn’t put away any of a large number of chances cost us dear.

Well done to all that played in what was a tough match, especially to the Paley brothers & to El Moore & Russ who put in a strong 90 mins.

Other results in the league (Northern defeat, Mixer draw) leave it all still quite open but these are still games we should be winning.

MOTM – the Treen – Immense in the Air and typically commanding at the back.