San Giljan brush aside Exiles

San Giljan 19 Exiles 11

(6-3) (4-4) (6-2) (3-2)

Another weak start as two Exiles players were conditioned by two major fouls in the space  of 90 seconds and 10 seconds play in the first session. There was a reaction by the team and by the half-way  mark, the boys were back in the reckoning – that last shot in the second session to bridge the gap to two goals would have served, but it was not to be. In the third session the Saints stretched their unassailable lead to seven goals to practically archive the encounter in their favour and bag the points.

What went wrong tonight was that we are  still seeing ingenious mistakes committed that cost dearly against stronger opposition and sags the team’s morale. The number of shots at the opponents’ goal was higher than previous forays but we failed to put the ball at the back of the net through inaccurate shooting and that tinge of luck which has yet to smile. We cannot afford to concede goals from counter attacks and defending practically in numerical disadvantage. Shoddy passing on our part, created goal-scoring opportunities  to our opponents. In the man-up situations, two were converted  from the five occasions created in the second and third session. The last quarter saw the team failing to score  six consecutive attempts. San Giljan had two penalties awarded and converted and their success rate was higher when they scored seven of their nine man-ups.

Let’s be positive

Let’s look at the bright patches of the team. The players were never goal-shy and the scorchers of Diego Borg, Nick Portelli (in photo)and Julian Rizzo Naudi remain vivid  in the spectators’ minds and that augurs well for the boys’ future outings. The  execution of the second man-up finished by Kayne Lanzon was perfect.  The attacks were better organized than the previous match against neigbours Sliema earlier in the week. The set defence set up  by the Saints was broken with the our players swimming across as instructed by the duo Paris John and Stephen who were deputizing for Aurelien Cousin  bound to watch proceedings from the stands. Depriving San Giljan of one of their local prolific scorers two minutes into the final session impresses the determination shown by the boys.

I would like to see consistent control by the officials – two glaring decisions were the one involving Peter Borg being penalized for shooting a ball into the back of the net after surfacing from a tackle without realizing that his opponent was thrown out and the second instance occurred when two players (one from each side) were simultaneously expelled and San Giljan had the ball returned with a second or two of  possession, but were granted another 30 seconds’ play.

The rotation adopted by coach John Paris was evident  and conditioned by the early dismissals (two players having two major fouls) and which had a bearing on decisions taken from the bench.

Ian Bugeja, Julian Rizzo Naudi (1 goal), Simon Vassallo, David Pace Lupi (1 goal), Nick Portelli (2 goals), Sasha Radovic (2 goals), James Spiteri Staines, Voja Cupic (2 goals), Kurt Griscti, Peter Borg (1 goal), Diego Borg (1 goal) and Kayne Lanzon (1 goal) were utilized throughout the match.

Frenchman Cousin has now a week to prepare for the next clash against Sirens who have one win to their tally – against Exiles in the first round.

 

KaFa

 

 

Comments

Latest News

Message from the Club President

02/06/2020

The Club President Andrew Paris sent the following message to the members on the 29th May 2020, following the lifting of certain restrictions by the Health Superintendent’s Office:   Dear Members, I trust that you…

Read More
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No connected account.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to connect an account.