An hour's extra sleep (or two hours if you're Adam), cooler weather and a full squad already makes this a better start to the day. The venue was once again the State Football Centre thanks to a late scramble and negotiations with the FFV by Dennis. All because of unscheduled council works at the home of today's enemy; Moreland City.Moreland is a familiar pre-season opponent for the lads of AC, although this year the plucky lads from Moreland sit in a higher division. Sarah, flying solo WAG at the start of the match was so excited about this fixture she couldn't get her magazine the right way around.
Danny DeVito, I mean Coach Coulter was in charge today, mandating a change in formation to a more traditional 4-4-2. "These lads are canny, but they cant run for shite" he said in his pre-match conference.
The first half began with much the same vigour as last week. The Malvernites were playing "joga bonito" (the beautiful game), but managing to keep up sustained efforts like they were filled with metaphoric Viagra.
The salivating crowd was seduced, enthralled and finally reached climax as a stunning piece of work found Marty with the ball. He dropped his head and launched his boot ball-ward curling it into the back of the net; 1-0.
Steady Eddie was resolute controlling the play from the back. Shining more so under the watchful eye of debutant WAG (his finacee). Debutant Garriet made plenty of runs to goal without result (unless you count kicks to the shin) and the midfield were sublime with gems passed forward. Coach Coulter was looking forward to being carried off and being drenched in Champers or Gatorade.
The excitement was all a little premature and hit of nasal spray a the half may have been wise. AC dropped their collective bundle, forgetting everything learned at training and the higher placed and fitter Moreland started to get on top. As an onlooker it's always easy to see when a team is getting on top of AC. It's when all you can hear is players yelling at each other; blaming like a moody teen rather than encouraging. What follows AC's cannibalistic rants is usually a goal........Moreland had read the script and slotted an equaliser.
The rest of the half was a scramble to catch a breath between yelling at team mates and chasing opponents. Malvern received a lucky break after a not so lucky tackle from Brien resulted in the ref, Dennis (yep against his own team) awarding a penalty. Steve's nemesis, the mouthy #15 who was dressed like he was heading to the Antarctic in head to toe skins stepped up for the kick, but fired far right missing everything. Steve let him know his thoughts.
A sigh of relief at the miss, but more so at end of the game.
Once again some good signs with a great half of football, coaching brilliance and some promising debuts. The season is now only weeks away and AC is eagerly awating the draw released on 17th April.
AC Malvern 1 - 1 Moreland City
Matthews
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