Match Reports Season 2008
Division 1 Firsts / Reserves | Division 3 Firsts / Reserves
S.A.A.S.L. Round Seventeen Saturday 23rd July 08
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DIV 1 FIRSTS 3 v 2 AFRICA UNITED ALLSTARS
Goal; Ripa (3)
Ciccianni, Kari, Matthews, Condon, Barolo, Rossi (Pavia), Stenta, Sawicki, Zanin (Ciano), Dew, Ripa
Tell the fat lady to get back into her box, there’s life in the old wolf yet! That was the wash up from a dramatic weekend that saw life breathed back into the Wolves campaign to stay alive in the first division. No match report has been written since the disappointing run of losses began after this reporter vowed to not write one again this season until a victory was recorded. It took some time, but finally we’re here! A lot has happened since the last match report so I’ll do my best to quickly touch on the past few weeks before taking you through this week’s victory.
Following hard fought draws against BOSA and Navarino, the Wolves travelled to the land of the silver spoon to take on SPOC. In our most disappointing turn out of the season, we were comprehensively beaten 0-3 by arguably the best side in the comp this year. A spiteful match followed against the Wanderers where OISC was desperately unlucky to lose 1-2, despite a fine headed goal by Matthews, in a fiery encounter against the league’s worst behaved club. Things were beginning to get tight, and our season looked over in the next match as we trailed Gleeson 0-2 at the half. A spirited comeback led by Matthews, who again scored a strong headed goal, and a penalty earned by Manou and put away by Stenta gave us a pulse and a 2-2 draw. The match was prematurely ended due to excessive player violence when the OISC players took exception to a crude tackle on Sawicki by Gleeson’s captain. However, the referee must have been watching the wrong game as it was nothing more than handbags at 10 paces.
With four games to go, Iggies were at rock bottom…literally, sitting on 10 points, 1 point behind Africa and 2 points from safety behind Navarino. The predicament the club found itself in cost Coach Romano Rossi his job and a new coach, Gerald McInness was instated. Romano must be commended for the hard work he put in over the best part of two seasons at the club and will go down as the first coach at Iggies to deliver an A Grade title in the Amateur League (last season in Division Two). An outsider could have been forgiven for thinking the club was quickly imploding and heading for a return to Division Two next season, but the club has held firm in the three weeks since and looks to be steeling itself for an almighty surge towards safety. Only time will tell if this happens.
With little time to prepare us for the do-or-die clash with Adelaide Uni, Coach McInness quickly went about the business of meeting and learning about his squad. The state of the pitch at Glenunga, a constant bug bear for Iggies over the years, actually helped us out for a change and, after a week of constant rain, the match was abandoned. This bought us some valuable time to get used to Coach McInness and in turn allowed him to have a good look at the squad at his disposal. With the following week being a cup round, it would mean that we would face Africa without a competitive hit-out in three weeks.
The wolves went into the match missing key personal in the form of Michael ‘Wedding Bells’ Manou, Shaun ‘Hamstrung’ George and Dalibor ‘I forgot that I was in Melbourne’ Drazetic all ruled out. Despite these set backs, the missing players provided other players with opportunities. Ripa and Zanin were re-instated into the starting line up after some considerable soul searching in the B’s and Dew made his league debut for the A Grade at right mid (we couldn’t believe it either!).
True to our label as ‘the best 20 minute team in the league’, the Wolves began on fire and within 10 minutes had established a 2-0 lead courtesy of a Ripa double strike. But we are not the bottom side of the league for nothing this season and, at 2-0 up, we decided to go on holiday and let Africa assume total control. Their frequent foray of attacks was bound to yield some fruit and, as has been the case all season, Iggies offered their opponents a lifeline into the match with a defensive mishap that allowed Africa to score. Still, we headed into half time with a 2-1 lead.
Determined to make things as hard as we possibly could for ourselves, we began the second half poorly and again were under the cosh as Africa went in search of an equaliser. They found it on the counter, our defence left exposed by a midfield turnover, and before we could take a breath we were in for one almighty scrap at 2-2. From there, the match resembled an arm wrestle as both teams looked for a winner, and to be fair either side could have won the match. Africa had the better of the next few chances and, had it not been for Ciccianni in goals may well have taken the lead. However, rather than throw away another 3 points in an already disappointing season, Iggies for a change found a way to win in circumstances not dissimilar to the 3-2 victory over Adelaide Uni earlier this season. The ball found its way to Ripa out wide on the right. His opponent decided to sit off him and Ripa fired in a cross come shot from a freakish angle, managing to chip the keeper with the outside of his right boot and secured his hat-trick. At 3-2 up and with only five to go, Iggies held on for what could turn out to be the most important win of the season. President Uren was heard misquoting Ian Holloway after the victory; “It wasn’t the prettiest girl we’ve ever pulled, but at least we pulled her!”
It was a dream start for the new coach who drove down from Clare to lead the team for the first time, before returning to Clare. The club thanks Gerald for his commitment and hopes the players can show something similar in the lead up to the end of the season. It was also a triumphant return for Ripa, who hadn’t played an A Grade match in 7 weeks. Most importantly it enables the Wolves to keep their destiny in their own hands. With Navarino getting pumped by SPOC, OISC moved off the bottom and a point clear of them. The win also means we are only 1 point behind Africa and within reach of Adelaide Uni and BOSA once more with a game in hand. We travel to Stirling next week under no illusions, knowing we are in for a very tough encounter. But we will be up for the challenge, with our heads held high, proud of the fact that we won the week before and with the realisation that we are good enough to keep our season alive.
DIV 1 RESERVES 3 V 3 AFRICA UNITED ALLSTARS
Goals; Hawkes (2), Pavia
DIV 3 FIRSTS
0 V 5STRATHALBYN
Goals; None
Lineup; Callaghan, Butters, CHIEF!, Balestrin, Earls (c), Woods, Photakis, M Ciccarrello, D Ciccarrello, A Rossi, Ortner. Subs; Kitchen, ZEEZOOOO, Hawkes
After a decent showing last week with Murray Bridge we hosted Strathalbyn up at the senior school. Looking at the table our situation was rather bleak, with relegation looking more and more likely, we were 10 points away from safety, still mathematically possible. The one thing we had going for us was Strath were below us in the table and the obvious threat of the wooden spoon was something we should want to stay well away from.
The scoreline shows that if you take your chances you win and Strath did this and won by a convincing margin. In another half arsed stuttering performance we were unable to string any significant moves together, there were brief moments of inspiration, such as Butters all action display once again, Rossi and Ortners turn of pace is definitaley a threat that we didn't use more.
One the whole there are individual talents within the team, but week in week out we are unable and unwilling to work for each other and play as a team. It's a depressing situation, morale is low but there is two paths to choose from keep playing the way we are and keep losing to teams who on paper are similar yet have more desire, structure and ability to play together as one. Or we change the nucleus, this doesn't mean changing personnel rather getting back to basics of enjoying knocking the ball around the park stop the constant desire of route one football, and basically working off the ball far more effectively.
It's beyond the point of crisis talks, Div 4 football looks the likeliest from here but we need to sit down and figure out how we are going to improve as obviously it doesn't just happen. I guess it's almost a call to arms but above all the thing i want the most is to win but if we go down i don't want anything left on the field at the end of the game, and further to this, as i know every week we do try our guts out and there is passion there, we need to do this more effectively and efficiently.
This all starts with training, Tuesday night.
In the meantime enjoy some photos of game last week against Murray Bridge, thanks goto Brett Durand.
DIV 3 RESERVES 5 V 0 STRATHALBYN
Goals; Williams, Leach, Greene (2), Redhead.
