Broadway Celtic II’s clocked up there 4th win on the trot yesterday with a fine display against the Stag. From the first whistle Broadway were applying pressure and it wasn’t long before the breakthrough came. Micky Rooney starting his first game of the season at right back picked up the ball in his own half, played the ball down the wing to Mark Kelly who crossed to the back post for Razor who pulled the ball back on the volley for Micky “Wayne” Rooney who must have being concussed because he found himself in the striker position to blast in from 3 yards for his first and last of the season! This was quickly followed up by a bout of quick passing up front that resulted in Mark Hayes side footing in for Broadways second. The game settled down after that and the Stag came into it a lot more but as the defence stood strong and soaked up everything as they have all season. Broadways third would have came after a mazey run from Razor that saw him walk the ball into the net but unbelievably the referee gave a goal kick on the say so of their defender. Just one of a number of one sided decisions on the day. The third finally came when Hayes broke the offside trap and raced clear to get his second of the game but only after the goalie half saved his original shot. The second half began with the Stag dominating in patches but lacking that killer instinct up front and it was Broadway that got the decisive goal to kill the game off. Kelly picked out Razor from a free kick and duly nodded in for an easy 4th for Celtic. With Broadway comfortably winning the game the Stag caught us on the break with a long ball forward that was finished in off the post by the forward.
All in all a good solid performance with our attacking play pleasing the eye, good work rate from the midfield including Neil who was chasing shadows all day. He must have a lot on his mind!! Solid at the back once again.
Man of the Match: Tough one today as nobody stood out but will go for Crabbsy for putting up with my moaning every week!
Team: Keegan, Gordan, Brendan, Stu, M Rooney, O’Leary, Carroll, Edson, Kelly, Hayes, Fitzpatrick, (subs JA, Conway,
1st team play 2nd fiddle
Broadway Celtic II continued their fine start to the season with a comfortable 2-0 win against their first team.
The seconds got off to a flyer with Mark Kelly flicking in a cross from Mark Hayes. 3 minutes later Nicky Harman was judged to have handled in the area and Chris O’Leary stepped up for the resulting penalty, only to be foiled by the post. This seemed to spur the first’s on and they dominated for the next 15 minutes or so but they lacked any cutting edge up front with everything being dealt with by the seconds defence & goalkeeper. The seconds had the best opportunities and Ray Fitzpatrick came close after a mazy run past 2 defenders that took a fantastic save by Lee Caffrey to stop a contender for goal of the season. A long ball from goalkeeper
The second half continued much the same as the first with the seconds trying their hardest to get back in to the game, they dominated the game in short spells which resulted in 2 offside goals but could not get that elusive goal. Both teams had their chances to score but in the end it was a comfortable win for the seconds.
This was probably the worst performance of the season for the seconds but they never looked like losing this game and I think the early goal caused us to take our foot off the pedal.
Man of the match: Ray Fitzpatrick for his nutmegs
Team: Keegan, Gordan, Brendan, Stu, R Fortune, O’Leary, Carroll, Edson, Kelly, Hayes, Fitzpatrick, (subs M Rooney, Conway, Jez )
2nd team march on unbeaten
There will probably be 2 reports for this game so lets keep this one factual and without any spin (well a little), the 2nds took the lead in the 1st minute when Tommy Gordon (1st's) scored an o.g whilst being put under pressure from Mark Kelly (2nd's) who claimed the goal.
On 3 Minutes Nicky Harman (1sts) handled in the box but Chris O'Leary dragged his penalty wide.
43 minutes A long ball from the Peter Keegan in goal for the 2nds allowed Ray Fitzpatrick to take advantage of the hesitation between the 1st's central defendes and goalie Lee Caffery as he deftly lifted the ball over Lee Caffery to put the 2nd's 2-0 up.
The 1'sts improved after the break and dominated long spells of the 2nd half and had 2 goals ruled out for offside (one of which was very controversial) though the 2nds were good value for thier win and go into next weeks game v fellow title contenders The Stag on a high with a maximum 9 points and 20 goals scored with 0 conceded.
m.o.m by BCFC I manager (danny mulcahy) Stuart Freeman (bcfc II)
1sts warm up nicely
With all thoughts on next weeks 1st v 2nd team game it might have being easy to let things slip today but a comfortable 5 0 victory over an in form Real Kilbs side was acheived through a poachers hatrick from Gavin Dobbs and some good individual performances from several players with Willy Murphy and Lee Caffery in particular deserving praise.
Both sides had chances to break the deadlock early on,the differance was that all Kilbs chances came from unforced errors by Broadway eg not kicking the ball into touch !
Gavin broke the deadlock on 25 minutes when the Kilbs offside trap failed leaving Gavin free on the penalty spot to finish off well, the advantage was doubled when Gavin again pounced in the box to grab a brace which was followed by a penalty for Jason after the ex castle keeper Denis attempted punch clearance saw him follow through into Gavins jaw, Jason duly slotted home the penalty.
The 2nd half was scrappy with Gavin completing his hatrick early on which caused us to to relax and thus play awful for the next half an hour, a combination of fitness and complacency allowed Kilbs a few good chances which Lee did well to save.
Kevin Mcloughlin wrapped it up with 5 minutes to go though there was still time for Tim to give away a penalty in the box which Lee saved (how does he do it,its almost a surprise when they go in)
5-0 it finished which sets the 1sts up well for next week ,with no injuries (bar Ryan Tanner) a full squad to chose from and confidence high it should be a strong 1st team that seeks to win the battle of the broadways next sunday at Northwick Park.
BCFC Caffery ,Gordon ,Harman ,Willy Murphy ,David Murphy , Calbert, Tipping ,Tim Mullins , Wright , Dobbs , Kevin Mcloughlin
subs Paul Mcloughlin, Wayne Mullin ,Zimmerman
man of the match Gavin Dobbs
BROADWAY ARE BACK !
Highgate Albion II 0 Broadway Celtic 0
Ok so the result might not tell the whole story but the mood within the team after todays game is that maybe just maybe we might be in a position to get in the division 2 promotion mix come the spring.
Brendan was sensational on his debut and though we could never replace Jason who departs back home to NZ after the BCFC II game Sunday week we may have found a player who's strength will ensure that we don't get pushed around as was the case last year.
Back to the game itself,both teams were changed drastically from the previous weeks county cup game,with BCFC completly unrecogniseable from the team that started the previous week, for HAFC II the decision to play the blonde haired fella in midfield and move last weeks winger to full back where he performed the Ashley Cole role up and down the wing probably saved them from defeat, thats without mentioning the MoM who was the Highgate keeper who was in top form.
The first half saw 1 chance for each side, HAFC II had a shot cleared of the line by Willy on 25 minutes and Gavin forced the HAFC II keeper to tip a header onto the bar on 43 minutes.
The 2nd half was all Broadway with Jason denied superbly 3 times by the HAFC II keeper and Gavin brilliantly pulling down the ball in the box only to drive his volley over the bar , though the closet we came was when Shane's height caused confusion in the box following a corner and a HAFC II clearance pinballed round the area only to loop towards the top corner where a HAFC II defender headed away.
The points were shared but more important than the result was the return of belief to this side with several players in for a shock if they think that they are going to get into this side without a rise in there commitment to the club.
Lets hope that this is not a false dawn though my heart and head tell me that we may have turned the corner after a very difficult 12 months !
BCFC Caffery,Butterill,Harman,Murphy,Gordon,Wright,King,Hogan,Tipping,K Mcloughlin,Dobbs
subs Calbert, Mullins ,P Mcloughlin
subs not used Zimmerman (next week Adam) and Mulcahy
Final thought - Though some of you were disapointed not to take all 3 points remember that HAFC II were Presidents Cup finalist last year and will take points of several of our rivals for sure. 4 points from our opening 2 games is not a bad return considering we did not score v Real Kilbs till the 82nd minute,who we face again at Broadfields this Sunday.
Oh well Shadwell!!
Broadway Celtic II 6 - Shadwell 4
Broadway continued their unbeaten start to the season yesterday in a hard fought Middlesex Cup tie. This was a contender for match of the season as Stu pointed out to the ref, “you should be paying us for this sort of game”.
Broadway began by dominating the first 20 minutes only to be hit by a sucker punch by Shadwell on the break but it wasn’t long before things were even again. A poor clearance by the Shadwell goalie resulted in Crabbsy volleying into an open net for his second of the season. Broadway continued to dominate the game but a constant lack of concentration and poor positional play allowed Shadwell to have 2 clear one on one situations but Keegan came to the rescue. The remainder of the first half was a dogged affair with Macca getting involved in a fracas that should have resulted in the Shadwell midfielder being sent off for attempting to land one on him, how he missed that meat head I will never know!
The second half started much like the first with Broadway carving out numerous opportunities with fine performances from the wingmen and strikers but once again the luck was not with us and a dubious decision from the ref after a 50/50 challenge from Keegan on their striker meant Shadwell took a 2-1 advantage from the resulting penalty. Broadway were then forced into a change of personnel with Butler coming on for Macca who went into a challenge that resulted in him injuring his ankle, but by his reaction you would have thought he was getting one up the jacksy! It wasn’t long before Broadway were on equal terms once again with a fine header from Crabbsy from a razor corner. This should have been the springboard for Broadway to go on and take the game by the scruff of the neck but once again positional play meant a ball over the top caught us off guard again and the Shadwell striker scored with a fine finish into the roof of the net to make it 3-2 to Shadwell with 8 minutes remaining. A last throw of the dice from assistant manager Darren Gilbride was needed and with 4 minutes remaining he brought on PP for Flash and JA (yes JA) for Hayes. With his first touch, JA managed to flick his header through to one of the forward men, I can’t remember who and he was eventually brought down for penalty to Broadway. Quidsy stepped up and fired it low to the goalies right for the equaliser. Broadway pressed on for the winner as nobody wanted extra time and after a lovely ball from Razor, Kelly slid in at the back post to volley into the net to give Broadway the lead for the very first time in the game. With only 30 seconds to go Shadwell earned a corner, the ball was flicked on at the near post and fell to one of three unmarked Shadwell players to fire in the equaliser with 3 seconds left on the clock. The referee’s whistle followed straight after meaning extra time was on the cards.
In previous seasons this team’s heads may have dropped after having the game snatched away so cruelly but the team spirit is at an all time high and there was only one team going to win this game in extra time. A long high ball forward was taken down in one motion from razor, he shifted the ball out of his feet and unleashed a rocket into the top corner to give Broadway a 5-4 lead. It was one way traffic from hear on in and Shadwell never looked liked scoring in extra time and in the second period Brendan Beckenbauer took the ball out of defence on a run past 3 players before he was taken out by the defender in the box. We will give him the benefit of the doubt because he was clipped but he went down so late it was unreal! Quidsy stepped up for his second penalty of the day and put the ball into the opposite corner this time to finally wrap the game up for Broadway.
Once again we looked particularly good going forward with goals coming from strikers and midfielders but we need to work on our positional play as we were all over the place today.
Man of the match was a toughie again but I think Kelly just edges Razor out for his all round performance.
Team: Keegan, Flash, Brendan, Stu, Macca, Quiddsy, Crabbsy, Neil, Kelly, Hayes, Razor, (subs