CLONTARF VILLA

FOOTBALL CLUB

THE DOC'S POSTMORTEM

 

31st January 2004 - Casta Celtic (A)
The wind, the rain, the cold, the fact that our regular goalkeeper and 4 or 5 regulars were missing and the fact that we played shit football all conspired to hand Villa the heaviest defeat in years - a 7-1 humiliation.

The conditions did make it extremely difficult to play any sort of decent football as every pass, tackle, cross and shot had to be accurate and on the day we were definitely not doing that. On the other hand Casta tried to play the game to suit the cond itions and they played the ball on the ground, in to feet and used the wings to good effect.

Amazingly we did manage to take the lead with the returning Dave Peate putting us 1-0 up with a cross/shot. Unfortunately, not long after Casta capitalised on some poor Villa defending and their tall No.10 calmly rounded our keeper and made it 1-1. That's the way it stayed until the interval.

Unfortunately at half time we lost our stand in goalkeeper John as he had injured a muscle. Dave Peate donned the bright or orange jersey and an oversized pair of tracksuit bottoms and took his place between the sticks. Casta took full advantage of the following wind and within 5 minutes of the restart were 2-1 up. The third goal came from and goal keeping error with a tame shot squirming between the keepers legs (sorry Dave!!), after that the goals flowed so freely that I was losing count.

Mercifully the ref blew the final whistle and we all trudged off cold, wet and pretty dejected. It is bad enough losing but to be humiliated like that so much worse. We will just have to pick ourselves up for the next game.