Narrow first up loss for the Thirds.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009

The Thirds began their season in the new Thirds 1 competition in wet and windy conditions againt Cleeland Utd. Cleeland Utd went with the wind in the first half and in the 2nd minute, they were awarded a very dubious penalty for handball which they converted after the ball came off the crossbar and onto the keeper’s back and into the net. With SS on the defensive for the whole of the first half and playing poorly, Cleeland Utd took advantage and created many opportunities to score. Just before half time, they made it 2-0 when their goal scorer took on 3 players and drilled an unstoppable shot into the corner of the net.

The second half was a different matter altogether. SS began to win much more of the 50/50 challenges in midfield and piled on the pressure. A constant barrage of corners and free-kicks in Cleeland Utd’s area only kept up this pressure. However, we found ourselves down a keeper when Jonathan Argiris injured his leg and had to be stretchered off. Peter Tasias was put into goals and Tommy Angelakis played upfront.

Halfway through the 2nd half, a through ball had Tommy run into space and their keeper came out to meet him only for the ball to be rebound out to George Kaplantzis who calmly steered the ball into an empty net.

This was the signal for SS to press further for a result & whilst Cleeland Utd created a couple of chances to ice the win, it was SS who had the best chance to earn a point. A free kick taken from the flank found George Lia perfectly on the edge of the 6 yard box only for him to head wide. Despite a flurry of corners at the end of the game, SS were unable to find the equaliser.

Despite a poor first half, the second half display was full of commitment, hard work and discipline. The standard has been set by the team themselves and better results will come the Thirds way if they maintain this level.

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