Div 5 Match Report vs Perth Royals

09 May 2011 Written by HRSC

The Div 5 first team have won 2 of their past 3 league games, a win today against Perth Royals would see the rovers move further up the table. The inclusion of Pat Guggisberg and Joe Wright from Div 1 would hopefully strengthen the side along with the majority of first team players lining up on the park. The pitch was not in the best condition, but it was up to the players on how well they will be able to cope with this.

There were some early chances to bot sides, Tony, Deng and Joe all having chances to score. On the 22 minute mark a Royals midfielder was given too much time to take aim and he buried his shot from long range outside the box to take the lead. Within 8 minutes of this there would be an equaliser by Joe putting the rovers back in the game, poking the ball past the keeper as he rushed out.

This left the score at 1-1 at half time but Rovers after the break wanted to make sure it didn’t stay like that by looking for the winning goal and coming back home with the 3 points. Not long after half time there was a substitution to be made with Pat G. Coming off and making way for OJ to come on and make his influence on the game.

After being able to defend a counter attack from Royals, Aleks Dudek was able to pass to Joe on the half way line who played it back to Tony. Tony saw Deng out on the right who took on a man then squard it back to Tony who put in a perfect lob over the two centre backs for Joe to run on to but the resulting shot went down the keepers throat.

Rovers then got on the attack again lead by Pat Le running circles around the Royals midfield but his shot went wide. Shortly after Joe came off the field with a calf injury allowing Skip to come into the attack. The last substitution resulted in Daryl coming off and Kim Le coming on.

Soon after a pass from Tony out wide to Deng on the edge of the box got to him and with his speed and footwork, which has posed a big threat all game, managed to get around the defender but could only manage a shot with his opposite foot which hit the side netting. With 10 minutes to go a free kick earnt by Deng set up Aleks to chip a ball into the box over the defenders but it fell just wide without a rovers player managing to get on the end of it.

After blocking and defending another attack from Royals it was Tony once again who was the provider of a great lofted ball between the two centre backs which sent up Deng with the defenders close on his tails and he was tripped by the defender who should’ve got a red card but got off with a yellow. With minutes to go a failed clearance from the Royals defender put the ball on Dengs foot 3 yards out but he failed to capitalise and the chance was lost.

The last minutes of the game was exhilarating and nerve wracking as it was end to end stuff which left some spectators of the game on the edge of their seat. With Rovers failing to capatalise on missed chances the game finished 1-1 leaving the Rovers 6^th on the table after round 3.

Matt Jennings