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| Thriller at the top |
Nine goals, twenty chances created, and two hat tricks were some of the key stats from Saturday's clash between Parkway Forest FC and Saint Martin. But the most important number is five. That's the number of points that separates first and second, after Forest's thrilling 5-4 victory.
On the second game of the back-to-back midseason clash, Saint Martin had to win in order to stop Forest from pulling away after a 3-1 result in favour of Forest last week. Saint Martin boss Valetpat therefore needed to throw caution to the wind.
Forest boss codespyder meanwhile needed to make his team's skill superiority count. A loss would undo the good work from the previous week. Goals were needed against a stingy Saint Martin defence. The result was that neither team looked to defend.
This was obvious from the off, as Forest scored within a minute through midfielder Suleyman Sanli. Forest's incessant pressing continued from the last game. After drawing a foul, striker Roger Mordillo scored a wonderful free kick on 24'. However, Saint Martin halved the deficit 6 minutes later, but any thought of being able to keep Forest close was erased on 37' after Mordillo got his second to make Forest's superiority count.
Saint Martin retaliated after half time by throwing more players forward in desperation. Forest suddenly found themselves with their backs up against the wall as Saint Martin dominated possession. Saint Martin got what they thought was their second on 57' but this was ruled out to their anger. Forest took advantage, with Mordillo getting his hat trick on 64' before defender Cosimo Asaro got in on the action to make it 5-1 on 70'.
With victory all but assured, codespyder gave his younger players some game time thinking that the game was over, but Saint Martin didn't lead the division for 5 weeks for nothing. Saint Martin midfielder Elvis Ramsay made it 5-2 on 73' after Mordillo was subbed off, but Forest didn't heed the warning and brought on a defender for a defender. Ramsay grabbed another 10 minutes later before getting his own hat trick in extra time that sent the home crowd's nerves jangling. Forest was on the ropes and had the referee given extra injury time, the result could have been very different.
After a thrilling set of encounters, both teams have had their defensive records brought down to earth, but both will have important clashes in the remaining half of the season that could still see the title go either way. With Forest only having two home games out of the remaining six, the team are in tough. Coupled with a potentially deep cup run (the fifth round tie against fellow Div 3 side Slim United is on Tuesday), and the team still dealing with the injury of influential midfielder Timotei Hirjui, and the title race isn't over yet.
Still, a five-point gap is a sizeable one at this time, and it's only fitting that the title fight between a pair of excellent teams could have been decided by a pair of excellent games.
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2018-10-19 17:41
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4418 Views |
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Reporter:
Gago_94
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