A very sunny April morning saw our competitive visit to Llandaff fields, hosted by Urdd! Unfortunately we were to face a strong Urdd side with a depleted squad.: Aaron is out for a number of weeks with a broken collar bone and both Ewan and Hassan were unavailable. Additionally we have had no contact with Leo so we when we arrived Dermot had only eight players to choose from. The disappointing organisation at Llandaff meant even more work for poor old Dermot who spent a lot of time before the games running around the four pitches trying to find opponents! The venue was used for two groups of four teams and it was impossible to find who was in charge! Between games Dermot continued to run around making arrangements and one occasion even missed a goal during a match due to negotations taking place!
The round-up of today's results!
Game 1 Marlboro Eagles 5 Thornhill 1
Game 2 Marlboro Eagles 1 Urdd 4 (First loss for 5 months!)
Game 3 Marlboro Eagles 3 Lisvane Panthers 3
Three very different games today! All played in sunshine and just a little wind!
Game 1 saw us play Thornhill B and the lads quickly established superiority. At half time we were 4-0 up and things looked easy. However Thornhill staged a spirited fightback and pegged back the lads in the second half to a single extra goal and even scored a goal of their own!
Game 2 saw the lads play a highly competitive Urdd side who denied the lads any space at all on the very small pitch. Very quickly Urdd established a 2-0 lead and the Eagles had it all to do. Unfortunately the shape of the game was well set and even though we pulled one back the Eagles finished 1-4 losers. This was the first defeat since November 17.
Game 3 against Lisvane was a tail of missed chances and defensive frailty which allowed Lisvane into the match. The lads had defeated Lisvane on every other occasion this season and so a draw was a disappointing result. If matches were won on chances the result would have been well beyond doubt but its goals that count!
So the morning ended with a w-l-d record seeing the Eagles coming to the end of a long unbeaten run! What a morning for Dermot! Well done sir! Let's hope it's a little less stressful next time!
Training will be taking place as usual this Thursday at Heath Park except for Declan who's Centre Parc bound! See you all Saturday!
