6/7/2015 5pm , Rotch Park
England 4 Ireland 0
And so the season begins with defending champions England taking on highly fancied Ireland in their opening game. Both teams were looking to get a good start to the season and calling on their top talent to represent them on this beautiful evening.
Pic. (Captioned) Captains Mason and Treacy complete pre match formalities.
Ireland, playing with an outfield player in goal from the kick off, started well, with confident possession, looking to get about England early and pushing play out wide on a regular basis. Those crosses though coming to nothing as everything that came in to the England box was met by a red shirt.
Pic. Mason clearance (015)
It was England that created the first chance, a free kick awarded 4 yards and slightly left of the goal that Lee Moyce cleared and rang the crossbar, not for the first time that day
Video Moyce freekick ( 145)
Moments later Irelands regular keeper stepped in, allowing the sub a clean sheet for his ungloved half hour between the sticks. Within minutes though, Ireland conceded, great movement in midfield released Lee Moyce, and while the Irish defence were looking for a flag that didn’t come, Moyce rounded the keeper and slotted home to give England the lead.
Within two minutes it was 2-0. An absolutely extraordinary strike from Tim Mason in his own half, absolutely twatted the ball goalward with only one intention, it was still rising when it smashed off the crossbar, hit the unfortunate keeper on the back of the head and rebounded in to the net at some pace. A fantastic strike, that Mason would want to claim, but can’t..! Lets call it Assist of the season, and then some.
Pic ( Keepers despair) 117
Lee Moyce still had time to hit both the post and the bar again as England started peppering the Irish goal.
Half time 2-0 to England 168
Ireland started the second half with some purpose, creating more chances, but unable to break through the England defence, marshaled by Rob Peacock and featuring an impressive debut from Alex Cattini.
Intricate play by Reilly and Napier in Irelands midfield was still resulting in little end product as anything that cleared the centre halves being comfortable dealt with by Graeme Doran the English keeper.
Pic. Keeper 295
Midway through the second half, the stuffing was finally knocked out of Ireland as Hardiman took over terrorizing the Irish defence, two attempts off the line and one off the post before he got his goal, receiving the ball in tons of space and firing low and hard across the keeper.
Pic Hardiman goal. 421 425
Frustrations mounted and within the space of five minutes two players found their way to a yellow card, Brown for Ireland and Gilks for England.
Pic Brown tackle 050
All that was left was for Mike Owen to round out the scoring. An inswinging corner, met on the edge of the six yard box by Mason, whose attempt was cleared off the line. As the ball was cleared to the edge of the penalty box, Owen picked the ball up jinked in to the box before finding his spot past the dead legged keeper.
Video Owen goal 565 568 569
Final Score England 4 Ireland 0 – Ireland still looking for their first win over England and will be looking to have another go at their rivals in the play offs later this season.
Pic 621