He's big and red.....watch him!

A hard fought battle at the Stadium of Shite ended in a 2-1 victory to Old Melbournians on Sunday. Despite a gallant effort and a dominating display for most of the match, AC couldn’t get across the line.

The dressing room pre-match was brimming with excitement on the back of last week performance. An unlucky 3-1 loss against the table topping Bayside gave the boys a glimmer of hope against the mid table OM’s.

The game started with AC building on their performance from the prior week. Passes were being strung together and control was maintained in the midfield. A shift of Pete into a central role with Jay and Dave slotting into centre back with Rich Owen was proving to be a very strong spine.

The capacity crowd watched on as an impressive performance was put on by the red and black (more impressive than so far this season anyway). Jones, playing on the left, was the architect of many of the first half attacks as he pinballed passes with teammates as he made his way down the wing. Unfortunately for AC they were unable to get on the end of the crosses. So no goal resulted.

Captain Cresswell, taking a leaf out of Jay’s book led by example dropping back to help the midfield maintain the ball and create chances with Jones and Tucker. AC would only manage to get one shot on target for the half which was saved.

Despite the positive efforts AC still couldn’t break the duck in the first half. Fortunately, through a brilliant defensive effort by the Fantastic Four saw OM’s hit the sheds without a real scoring opportunity.

The buzz of electricity in the rooms was amazing. Finally for the first time this season a sense of belief existed. Coach Dennis had two instructions before the second stanza; “keep doing what you’re doing” and “watch out for bid red on our left side”.

A slight reshuffle of the structure had new signing ‘the Unitt’ playing on the right and after dusting off the early cobwebs was showing some good signs.

AC was physically dominant winning the 50/50’s and looking like it was only a matter of time before they’d score. This would change when Big Red stepped up on our left – as predicted. The solid red nut was allowed to play five minutes of football and in those five minutes the score was 2-0.A momentary lapse can be costly in this game, and this was a prime example.

AC bounced back with Pinkney smacking the wind out of someone half his age and Colin continuing his dominant form this season despite what initially looked and sounded like a broken leg in a late tackle.

The next was either through luck or good planning, but Dennis shifted the Unitt up front and the benefit followed as Terry took on the defence and slotted home his first goal for the club.

AC had OM’s on the back foot and continued pressing for an equaliser. Some were a little over zealous as Stu attracted the wrath of the opposition, the ref and of course the coaching staff. The coaching panel were later overheard contemplating marking line down the wing for Stu to stay in not unlike the doubles line on a tennis court.

Unfortunately the game ended with OM’s one goal to the good, but once again a major step forward for the clubs performance. The lesson from today’s game is watch out for Big Red!

AC Malvern 1-2 Old Melbournians
Unitt

Best in show: Colin Brien
WAG's player of the match:Daniel Jones
Most in need of a straight line: Stu Fleming
(prize - a signed copy of Johnny Cash's Walk the line)