Atlantic Stars : Match Report v. Old Boys on 04 Feb 2009

2009-02-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 4th February, 2009

Atlantic Star 4 Old Boys 2

Glasgow

Marler

Leach

Dickens

Murray

Holian

Griffiths

Glasgow

Maguire

Marler

Dickens

Leach

Carlowe

Thorburn

Fraser

Heffernan

Doherty

Jack

Coen

Three days after their Caybrew league success attention turned to the indoor arena as the two experienced sides locked horns once more. Atlantic Star had their biggest turn out ever for an indoor game with only Atterbury, Coyne and Silveira on the treatment table.

Similar to the Sunday game manager Atterbury opted to start with a physical team, a tactic which had worked well against RCC and The Old Boys previously. There were a number of recognizable faces amongst the opposition including the Italian Luce whose danger Star were fully aware of.

The first few moments were about the sides judging each other. Despite the Old Boys heritage in the indoor league, it was the first time the sides had met up at Kings and neither side wanted to leave themselves exposed in the early stages. A couple of testing shots were made at both ends, Maguire and Marler testing the Old Boys keeper while Murray had to be alert a couple of times to deny Luce.

The deadlock was broken after about six minutes when skipper Glasgow lobbed the keeper, the ball striking off the cross bar and into the back of the net. Star took this as the time to take the impetus and suddenly Old Boys found themselves severely on the back foot. Regular changes with the large squad was keeping Star fresh and Marler bundled his way down the left and poked the ball home to double the lead.

It was to get even better for the boys in red when Leach peeled off his marker, took a return pass from Maguire and pushed the ball between the keeper’s legs. It wasn’t the tidiest finish but the old man of the team deserved it for actually making it that far forward. The kick off was held up while Man City tottered back.

So three up at half time with as good a performance as any previously this season, optimism was high at the start of the second half. There was an early scare when a chance fell to Old Boys but again Murray was equal to it. The Old Boys had reorganized at half time and were starting to restrict chances for Atlantic Star. A battle ensued in the middle of the field and the game went a little bit niggly with hard but largely fair challenges being put in by both sides. The Old Boys were up in arms when their Italian superstar was shown yellow for dissent but Star didn’t make them pay during this time, and when Luce returned he was ready to start causing some havoc.

As players stood off the Old Boys forward carried the ball on and nestled the ball past Murray to give his side some hope. As seen before Star suddenly became careless and as the ball was lost in the middle, Luce turned his maker (Pistol in his twilight years who was later told that the Italian was half his age just to cheer him up) and scored again to make it three two.

Flashes of a repeat of the Old Man United game suddenly came back to everybody and edginess was creeping in. Manager Atterbury took the heat out of the situation and took a time out to get his players in and restore concentration. He returned to his starting side with ten minutes remaining and both tactics were to pay off for the manager, on a night when he was taking no stick from anybody.

Dickens was brought on to add some extra running and pace and he was to link well with Maguire to strike a fantastic shot past the hapless Old Boys keeper to restore a two goal cushion. This dealt a blow to the Old Boys and they weren’t able to find the energy to scrap their way back in the remaining time.

So a double whammy for Atlantic Star/Harrys and the win elevates them to second with defeats for Paramount and UBS. It also puts pay to the voodoo of the George Town end which has haunted them previously.