East came out firing in the opening 10 minutes, with only some great goalkeeping denying them, before one of the worst goals you'll ever see, from both a defensive and attacking point of view, ball sort of knocked around aimlessly and toe poked in eventually. City worked their way into the game after that, but didn't really create too many quality chances, though there was one chance, a shot over the bar, which should have levelled the scores. East scored again on about the half-hour mark, ref could have given the penalty against the keeper but played the advantage instead, and it was 2-0. Penalty late in the half against the City keeper had him sent off, 3-0, game just about done and dusted. Not sure if it was a penalty, too many bodies in the way for me to see.
2nd half, City fought and scrambled in defence and occasionally got some decent moves on the counter, but on the whole East on top again, had quite a few chances go begging, some really bad misses, but also a cracking long range shot which smashed against the post. East got the 4th and fifth goals in the last 5 minutes or so, Bobby with a hattrick, Tolli and Gaffar scoring the others. Apart from the penalty/send off, which as I said I'm not sure of the correctness of, I thought the ref was fantastic.
East looked good, when they were 'on' (the game lost much of its sting in the 2nd half) they looked comfortable working as a unit, and former South player Lester Abalos played very well, will be a great addition if he keeps up that kind of play. No Freddy Pedrotti or Zoric today either. City disappointed me today, they seemed startled by how East came out all fired up, but on the whole there seemed to be a general lack of direction on their part, but I reckon it was just an off day for them, and falling behind so early and then having 10 men for 45 minutes doesn't help either. Not sure who if anyone was missing for City today, but I reckon they'll bounce back.
Reserves game was a little farcical, East having only 11 players to start (coach refusing to play 3 or so unregistered players, and rightly so of course), and lost one of those 11 to injury 5 minutes in. Finished 3-0 to City, but in all honesty, based only on the 2nd half i saw, this was a really high standard game for state 2 ressies, there was a lot of neat passing from both sides, and lovely movement off the ball and on it.
I suppose some of the City people like Roger can come and give the story from the other side of this game, be interested to see their point of view.
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