Monday Madness As Guantanamo Net Another Three Points

Monday 22nd September 2008

Racing Guantanamo notched up another three points against Pearl Coast Pirates in a special Monday night fixture to take the team into league points double figures. It was night that saw Guantanamo avoid the wooden spoon, and welcome back marquee signing Joe Tighe.

Guantanamo began the match with a near-full complement, minus Danny Pinchas who was still out with an ankle injury, and Tim O’Brien who has tried to cement his place as the Guantanamo ‘Stan Lazaridis’. With the Pearl Coast team still in financial peril and trying to establish a squad, it was left to the goodwill of the Guantanamo squad to fill up their roster with loan players for the night. Jon Falconer and Joel Hamling graciously agreed to don the black and white for one night only.

The match began strongly with both teams vying for domination in the centre of the park, and it was the Pirates who won out, when they took the lead through an early Jackson Cordingley goal. The former Guantanamo player took a strong volley to fire past Francois Kruger in goals and put the Pirates 1-0 up.

It looked to be another bad night for Guantanamo as attacks came to nothing, and the defence was constantly under pressure. As the match wore on however, the experience of Tighe and Tim Gray in the centre of the park started to tell and the momentum began to shift to Guantanamo. The Pirates tried their luck from afar, but the orange defence, well-marshalled by Andy Smyth, was not going to allow the black shirts to threaten Kruger’s goal.

Ben McKenzie again looked sprightly for the Mighty Oranges up front, but he continued his form from last week, blazing away in front of goal with not much reward. The big striker finally got on to one late in the first half.

Joe Tighe began to assert authority over the midfield and the big Irishman put away a great goal to make it 2-1, before scoring a second to make the scoreline 3-1 before the half time whistle.

The second half was a free-scoring affair, with neither side worrying too much about defence, they both pushed forward as often as possible and the spectators on the sidelines were loving the free-flowing brand of football that both teams were exhibiting.

Josh Sibosado worked hard in defence and midfield, swapping about with captain Ryan Platten, who also managed to push forward to set up Tighe for his third of the night. Chris Hingston was again solid at the back, while Francois Kruger pulled off some tremendous saves to keep out Pirate-for-the-night Jon Falconer on two occasions.

With Adam Shanley spearheading the attack supported by Luke Turner who had dropped into midfield for this match, the Guantanamo defence had a degree of potency that caused worried faces among the Pirates fans, and the match finally ended 8-6.

Guantanamo now go into the last match of the season against Broome City with a full squad, plenty of confidence and a final three points to play for.

Racing Guantanamo Matchday Squad
Ryan PLATTEN, Tim GRAY, Francois KRUGER, Andy SMYTH, Chris HINGSTON, Josh SIBOSADO, Luke TURNER, Joe TIGHE, Adam SHANLEY, Ben MCKENZIE
**Joel HAMLING & Jon FALCONER played for the Pirates

Final Score
Racing Guantanamo AFC 8 – 6 Pearl Coast Pirates

Attendance
1 (Tim Gray’s dad)