Win elusive despite Wright double
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Win elusive despite Wright double
Friday night saw a game between Douglas United and Leichhardt in the FNQ football third division at Leichhardt. The game would be dominated by Douglas who would concede a late counter attacking goal to deny them the win.
The game did not start well for Douglas after taking the first twenty minutes to grow into the game and really find their feet. Around the ten minute mark Danny Ferrero was sloppy on the ball for Douglas which would lead to a corner kick for Leichhardt.
The marking by the Douglas players for the corner was nothing short of shambolic and they deservedly would go 1-0 down after an open player side footed in from a matter of yards for Leichhardt.
Shortly after this Douglas started to dominate proceedings, pushing high up the field and trying to pass the ball around when possible. Leichhardt, seemingly uncomfortable on the ball, had taken to sending the ball long for their fast strikers to chase onto.
It did not take long for Douglas to tie the game at 1-1 when Adam Wright turned on the edge of the box and buried his shot in the bottom right hand corner. Adam has fast become a player that Douglas can rely on for that little bit of quality needed at times to put the ball in the back of the net.
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This goal made the Douglas boys grow in confidence and they really started to take the game away from Leichhardt all over the field. Rodney Rasmussen in particular was showing his experience and calm head on the field for Douglas with a very high pass percentage, consistently finding Douglas players.
Just before the half Adam Wright forced his way through two defenders and let another great shot fly. It would settle nicely once again in the corner of the goal and increase the Douglas lead, taking the game to 2-1. Adam's two goals would be considered the highest quality at any level.
After the half Douglas would come out strong in most aspects of the game, possession in particular was being heavily dominated by the Dragons. However one thing that was missing in the second half was chances for Douglas to increase their lead. The ball was being kept well but the creativity to make a game ending chance was non-existent.
One of the few chances was created by a bit of brilliance by Ashley woods, cutting inside on his favoured left foot he would pull his shot just wide to keep the game at 2-1.
As the game approached the final ten minutes the moment that Douglas had feared, a long ball over the top of the defence for a pacey striker to run onto, the striker would not make any mistake in taking the game to 2-2.
The last ten minutes of the game just fizzled out which would mean both teams would share the spoils and leave with one point each.
In the coming weeks Douglas will have to work on retaining the ball as well as they did in this game, but the creativity will have to be improved dramatically from what was produced in the second half.
The "Paddy's Irish Bar" Man of the Match award could have easily gone to Adam Wright for a second week in a row for his top class finishes, however, on the night one man who really seems to have taken on board the most basic of principles of the keep ball game is Rodney Rasmussen therefore he will be this week's Man of the match.
This Friday Douglas will have a tough trip away to Marlin Coast.