Scouse Jesus' Miracle Goal Leaves
Legal Head Without a Prayer.
Much of the punditry before this
game was whether the 0-for-2 record for Revolution a sign of their season to
come and whether Legal Head's new identity, new signings and the imminent return
of star striker, Andy Mitchell were going to be the catalyst for a turnaround in
form. Legals entered this game high on optimism against the very last side they
have beaten in a competitive match - a fixture at
Happy
Valley
back in April
2005.
Revolution lined up with a team full
of strength and experience, so much so, the likes of Ricky Bernardo and Vijay
Dowlani were resigned to the bench. The only regular player missing was
Hudson
in goal.
Jessop took the captain's armband in his absence. As regards to the Legals
line-up, the one question on everyone's lips, whilst walking through
Maritime Square
pre-match, was the whereabouts of Andy Mitchell. He was not to be seen
anywhere. Instead, Legals uncharacteristically had about five men on the
bench.
So the game kicks off with Legal's
showing the greater urgency, perhaps knowing that their best chance of scoring
would be when they had fresh legs. A simple lob over the Revo backline released
Mike Atkins who promptly blazed the glorious opportunity over the bar. For the
Revolution defence, the early scare worked in their favour as the penny soon
dropped that Legal's would be reverting to a one-dimensional, long ball game.
On countless occasions afterwards in the first half, the linesman's flag went up
for offside against the Legals' front 2.
The bumpy, tacky pitch was making it
hard for Revolution to play their renowned slick passing game and soon, as a
spectacle, the match was not one for the purists.
The most constructive move of the
half saw Huge feed a simple ball out wide to Ronaldaleinho from a crowd of
players. The Brazilian from Leeds played a
subtle first time ball behind Abela into the right corner where Scouse Jesus had
broken free. He looked up and pinpointed a cross to the far post area where
Jase the Ace was steaming in at 100 mph. The timing was a split second out and
the header went high. Otherwise, it would have been a fabulous goal for its
pure simplicity.
The attacks became more
straightforward. Stand-in goalie, KT, got a wind-assisted assist when Vinny
Rowse, looking close to his cheeky best, finished off a perfectly timed run with
a lob over the goalie, who looked out of sorts.
Revolution then brought on fresh
legs which in turn brought disruption to a side that had begun to settle and
play some decent football. With a new defensive partnership in place, the Revo
offside trap faltered and Mike Atkins finished well after finding himself free
with plenty of time to place the ball in the bottom corner after some fine work
from Ringo Lam - doing his bit to show that the lawyers can kick a ball in this
league.
As the players ran onto the pitch
for the second half, Legals looked full of confidence - downright cheeky, in
fact, especially when Ken Abela made the biggest mistake of the afternoon. "We
don't need Andy Mitchell to beat you guys", he says. Such braggadocio did not
go down too well with yours truly and it was then that I noticed Legal Head's
major weakness. Abela was going to pay for that
remark...
The next 25 minutes saw Revolution
give Abela a ragged time. On numerous different occasions, Ronaldaleinho, Terry
the Septic, Huge and Scouse Jesus dispossessed Abela with the ball. The triple
teaming and the sheer disparity of pace between the Revolution forwards and
Abela was beginning to swing the match clearly in Revolution's favour.
Huge takes the ball off Abela's toe
in the right hand corner of the pitch. He then dinks it inside to Scouse Jesus
on the right hand by-line. Instead of crossing and cutting the ball back to
what appeared to be eight guys waiting for a tap-in, the head-banded messiah
dribbles in and plants a trickle of a shot into the far corner from a one-degree
acute angle. Two - one.
Another spate of disruptive
substitutions meant Revolution were again trying to snatch defeat from the jaws
of victory. Legals had a run of corners culminating in a header being cleared
off the line by the Revo fullback on the post. The pressure was piling on.
Quite oddly, the Legal Head substitutes displayed a distinct reluctance to act
as ballboys when time was running out against them.
Time ticked on. and Revolution clung
on for a well deserved three points.
Goals: Vinny Rowse (Assist: Kenneth
Tan), Alex Moore (Assist: Sebastian Hughes).