MATCH REPORT : RED 6th March

Red 0 - 4 Tollcross Giants


First game of the new year for the Red team and they don't come any harder than the Tollcross Giants P4-P5 team.  What a great performance from the Red team though...


Bright and sunny in the Meadows, the snow has cleared and there even appeared to be 14 blades of grass left on the pitch.  The pitch - how cruel it turned out to be!  After a great warm up, the Red team started brightly.  Danny looked brilliant in goals, Ollie and Hector solid as ever at the back, Struan, Kjartan and Eyvindur in midfield with Ali lurking around as striker.  Sasha and Alex on the bench but soon to be involved.


After a couple of early midfield scraps the ball breaks to Struan on the right, he tricks his way past a couple of defenders and smashes a shot at goals.  The Giants goalie made his first impressive save of the day!  The resulting corner is cleared but an excellent tackle from Kjartan set up Ali who scampers clear and smashes another shot on goal.  This time the crossbar saves the Giants goal.  What a start from Reds and what a difference to their normal approach of letting the other team get an early goal.


The Red defence looked excellent again.  Ollie and Hector were battling hard against a couple of genuine Giants.  However all too soon Danny was forced to make his first save of the day, diving to his left to spectacularly push the ball round the post for a corner.  What a save.  Then another as the corner came in and was fired at goals Danny smothered the shot at the near post.  What a keeper!


Struan was causing the Giants defence some problems with some tricky runs down the right.  A nice cross found Eyvindur supporting Ali in the box brilliantly.  A first time shot from Struan's cross by Eyvindur was again brilliantly saved by the Giants goalie.


Sasha and Alex joined the game in midfield to freshen things up a little and allow the starting players a little rest.  Ali and Struan combined well in the 11th minute with Ali firing another great shot, which the Giants goalie did well to save.  It looked like it might be one of those days!


A short period of pressure from the Giants meant that Ollie and Sasha were busy, but with Danny behind them in fabulous form it looked like this game could actually be quite tight.  Suddenly out of nothing the ball broke in behind the Red defence and a couple of Giants forced the ball past Danny.  Cruel.  0-1 Giants.


The Giants were beginning to find their feet now and the wee lad with the Celtic top on under his blue bib looked like a great player.  Mind you so did the two giant Giants in the midfield, and so did the giant defenders and the goalie was simply outstanding.  Even the Giants coaching team looked great with their matching managerial gear.  Back to the game...


Another scrap in midfield resulted in Alex breaking forward and playing the ball through to Ali who scampered clear of the defence again but shot narrowly wide.  With the first half closing Eyvindur and Sasha played the ball through midfield brilliantly, Kjartan passed it on to Struan who slipped past the last defender and shot...just past the post.  Oooh.  What a chance!  Did the ball take a tiny bobble just as he was about to hit it?


Half-time 0-1 Giants.


The Red team looked really, really great in the first half but were looking slightly weary!  The second half started with Danny being replaced by Ali The Goalie in goals.  Ollie and Sasha started in defence, Danny, Eyvindur and Kjartan in midfield with Struan up front.  Hector and Alex started the second half on the bench.  Sasha started off brilliantly, really taking the ball forward from his defensive position and joining up with the midfield.  Danny was looking dangerous out wide, but was being closely marked by a couple of Giants.  Struan was stretching the defence and making some dangerous runs.  An early Struan cross caused havoc in the Giants defence but couldn't be forced home by Eyvindur, Kjartan, Danny or the fast arriving Alex!


Then the turning point.  Red team were looking dangerous.  The Giants were creaking a little.  A fabulous pass from Hector found Struan linking play with midfield.  Struan found Danny, who played the ball back to Struan.  Struan skipped passed a couple of giants, drew the goalie and slipped the ball across the face of the goal for a tap in.  Danny, Kjartan and was it Ollie each waiting to tap it in?  1-1.  Wait, no, the ball hits a lump of mud and despite Danny throwing himself at it the ball hops over his foot and trundles along the line!  The home support fall to their knees.  The move of the match, but no reward because of a lump of mud.  The away coaches mutter something about Chris Iwelumo.  The home coaches mutter something about bobbles.


Guess what happened then?  From what could have / should have / would like to have been 1-1, the Giants stomp up field and fire past a helpless Ali The Goalie. 0-2 Giants.


The Red team look disappointed but stuck together.  For the next ten minutes they controlled the game.  Alex broke from midfield with the ball and played it through to Kjartan who had his shot well saved.  Hector broke forward from the back and played the ball to Danny who shot at the goalie.  Struan twisted and turned and had a couple of shots well saved.  Eyvindur supported the Struan brilliantly but that final pass, that final bit of luck in front of goal just would not come for the reds.  Even Ollie was now pushing forward trying to help his midfield.  The Red team spirit was still shining brightly!


As the Red team chased the goal that would spark a come back the Giant always looked dangerous on the break.  The Red coach too a risky decision to pack the midfield and leave poor Hector on his own for a period.  This works well when the Red team have the ball but dangerous when Giants break.  The Red midfield showed great determination to run back and cover.  What an effort.


Suddenly a break from Giants saw Ali The Goalie faced by two Giants.  First shot was brilliantly saved but the second was forced home despite a couple of desperate tackles from Sasha and Hector. 0-3 Giants.


Still the Red team tried to go forward.  By now all the action was in the Giants half.  Kjartan had a shot saved, Alex played in Hector who had a great shot cleared.  The conditions were being very cruel.  Some excellent passing from Red team often found a player in space in front of goal but the connection with the final shot just wasn't there.  As time ran out the Red were hit on the break as the Giants completed their scoring with a fine shot from the edge of the box.  0-4 Giants.


But still the Reds would not lie down.  With only moments left in the game an excellent run from Kjartan played in Struan.  Struan cut inside the last defender and smashed a shot into the top corner.  Woo - what a save!  The ball breaks back to Struan who fired it in again.  Woo - another great save.  This time the ball breaks off the goalie and Struan has another go - this time hitting the ball with his throat!  Not the best idea and the ball is hacked away as Danny, Kjartan, Eyvindur and Ollie all try to force it home.  The ref blows for full time!


What a performance from the Red team.  Great play from the entire squad - nice corners, nice passing and just no luck at all in front of goal.  The Giants goalie had 5 or 6 stupendous saves that on another day would have been goals.  Bring on St Peter's next week!