21/04/2021
MATCH REPORT ROUND 2 18/04/21
Home at Matheson Mosh-Pit vs West Adelaide Raptors
Won 3:1
⚽️ Pauly
⚽️ Lee (pen.)
⚽️ Frank
Lineups set. Take positions. Look to the centre. Keepers hang their manky unwashed-from-last-season towels in the equally fishy nets and stow various Molotov-Staminade^ bottles (^endorsement pending), before sitting down in their slippers to do some puzzles from the Sunday Mail over a cigar & waffles. They had plenty of time you see, as today’s freshly golden-liveried Official Match Referee Mr Calvin Laureate was still to square away some of the day’s malformities.
Indeed the odd toin has been known to need a good cossing... to time from time.
Teams also prefer to know which way they’re facing before they’re set to face it, and before the match looks to kick off, if it’s not too much... Linesmen, who casually sauntered along anything but the straight & level, should also be afforded the opportunity to find the right right wing...
Political comments aside, the Toss was eventually done & won.
And yep, you guessed it: “All Change...”!
Was a bit that way at times today.
Action? There was some. Vikings dealt with the early exchanges pretty well on the whole and started to gain the bulk of possession & make meaningful forays into good areas. Capitalising on any poor Raptor touches or tackles yielded a decent share of frees & corners. Ryan placed one static kick from the edge of the box which whistled by Tyson’s presidential scone to find Captain Pauly in just the right spot for a swing of the peg-leg! ⚽️ The ball bounced nicely off the inside of a rough but very tightly strung backup net. This thing wasn’t pretty either - she’d catch no kippers - but was such a piece of craft as to be almost totally invisible to the naked eye on camera - yet it had more bad knots than the French navy and more pegs than a Hills Hoist display lot.
1:0
Frank made some luck out there, as well as a complete nuisance of himself to Raptors’ defence, getting brought down for a penalty. Vikings’ spot-kick specialist duly ignored a cheeky call of “LEE, SUB!” and was both appreciative of a 12yd mark devoid of excavations and clinical in despatch. ⚽️
2:0
Both sides lined up for the restart. Vikings were keen for it. Apparently none of the linesmen were. In fact they seemed to have gone on strike. Nary a flag bearer to be seen. No flag either. Had to send a search party for it... Ah yes, there it lay - cleverly hidden in the grass far side...!
Bit of a variety show out there really. You get the idea by now. Only Bert Newton was missing.
Rotations had players going all over the shop as well. On, off, left right out front and back... a bench abacus & near-scientific focus was required. Amidst all the activity Enzo arrived. He’d been sadly held up this morning with some sort of 180 litre oil-skid. Sounds a bit unfortunate but you can imagine how long it’d take to stop. One sympathises. Anyway Vikings’ resident Dichiera Doctor-fan performed one burpee, three cartwheels and a farmers-blow on the difficult journey to the far wing for line duty. Served him well too. First couple of touches were very neat.
A hearty horns high & happy welcome back to AV Vet Shaggy who had usual run & telling impact in turnovers out there. Horns up as well, to both new Viking Matt, on his first start & also Michael on his first run on-field. Pretty sure they enjoyed themselves in the Matheson pit. ;)
Wait till we get a Wall of Death goin’ lads....! \m/
Chi was tight & effective in defence from entry in the latter part of the first half but had a different story in the second. It’d be fair to say he was about as excited to be in a midfield role as I’d be listening to Andy Harper’s radio commentary of tournament chess by candlelight in the Alzheimer’s Over 85’s Invitational.
Self-sacrifice was very honourably made and the much-loved stalwart pulled himself off to allow the Vikings’ middle to reset & reconnect.
Corners were good today. Tyson and Lee were providing quality deliveries into the box. As did Ryan with some longer balls from free kick positions. Simon had a volley that went very close from a corner second half. If only it was on his famous left foot...
There were two or three in a row it seemed, then a countering fast-break saw Vikings caught short with both Ryan & Simon upfield and not enough help for Chi ‘Deep’ Diep to deal with a racing Raptor forward, who finished well at pace to give the visitors a ray of hope. ⚽️
2:1
For a second a couple of heads looked like they wanted to drop. Just a touch. Wasn’t for long. We’re not made like that. Positive drive became full reward when Enzo played a great ball to Lee, who soared like a noble swan, nodding down for Frank, who swiftly pounced with customary bustle to mug the onrushing keeper with a deft lob. ⚽️ Yes baby!
3:1
Joey earned stripes on his second start between the sticks. Good command of his 18 yard box and did well with kick-outs & distribution. Iced the cake though, with a brilliant reflex save one-on-one to deny a dangerously confident Raptors forward.
Great day out. Couple of take-aways for all out there but points deserved. Respect to Raptors, who always compete and we know to be a good group of guys. Not many matches are without their ni**le but all in a days work when you can shake hands every time at the last bell. Frustration boiled over with a little petulance near the end but it was nice to see the right response from the sideline. Probably got away with a little lesson there too, connect would’ve seen a jog-on. All good, chalk it off and let’s look forward to the return leg - we all love our football!
Sort of hesitate to say who we’ll play next - the league keeps us guessing...!
Whoever you are, Adelaide Vikings FC will be on the raid, well steeled for a bit of froth’n’cut - and out to bring the points home!!
🤘🏼⚽️🤘🏼
