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In this morning’s friendly at New Home Park, the magano team second string proved to be no match for their Brook Street counterparts who romped home to a 7-0 victory.
The visitors’ central defenders were left pointing accusing fingers at each other when, in the twenty-seventh minute, Daniel Hasnaş shrugged them off to drill the ball home. However, it was the goalkeeper who was left doing the pointing two minutes later when after some terrific build-up play by Yann Schories left Dario Zintu completely unmarked in front of the goal, and the young Italian made no mistake.
A superb header by Liran Tzur gave Athletic a three-goal lead three minutes from the break, and forty seconds later he stormed up the middle of the park to slam the ball home for our fourth.
The visiting defenders were left chasing shadows in the seventy-third minute as Emil Vasiu fired in our fifth goal, and five minutes later Oleg Zhigalov fired home from from an acute angle to make it six.
Athletic weren’t finished yet, and left the best goal till last. With nine minutes left, Athletic were awarded a free-kick around twenty-five yards from goal. Paul O’Healihy lined up the ball before curling a superb kick round the wall and into the postage stamp.
“We played quite well, but we were wasteful in front of goal”, Arjen said at full-time. “We scored goals and kept a clean sheet, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so critical”.
Athletic eased past Jimmy’s Wiggles at New Home Park this afternoon thanks to a superb first half performance which saw them go into the break 3-0 up.
Although the visitors pulled a goal back in the second half, there was never any danger of a sustained fightback as Athletic moved four points clear of the visitors, to almost turn the title race into a straight fight between Accretia and ourselves.
Athletic got off to a bad start, losing defensive stalwart Eldvinas Šumlinskas in only the twelfth minute, however things picked up two minutes later when Andy Hautala fired home to open the scoring.
Jimmy’s came close to equalising after thirty-five minutes but Ville Yrjölä was more than equal to the task, saving Euan Butler’s powerful shot. However it was Athletic who got the next goal just two minutes later, courtesy of a well-executed Paul O’Healihy free kick.
The players could sense victory and four minutes from the break it was 3-0 as Andy Hautala knocked the ball under the advancing keeper.
Athletic had chances to increase the lead in the second half through another Paul O’Healihy free kick and a Nemanja Janković strike which cannoned back of the post, however it was the visitors who netted the only goal of the second half through Artur Paździerz.
“We’ve perhaps played better in other matches, but this was an important win for us”, said Arjen at full-time.
“We’ve now opened up a gap between ourselves and the third placed side which means we can concentrate on chasing the leaders instead of having to look too much over our shoulders”, he added.
The club have announced that next week’s reserves friendly will see Andorra 3 Divisió side magano team visit New Home Park. KO is at 10:30 BST on Wednesday morning.
Dario Zintu netted four goals as Athletic hit Ecuadorian visitors camimat for six without reply at New Home Park this morning.
Vítor Leocádio was to have a field-day down the left, and it was from a fine play by him in the seventeenth minute that saw the ball fed through to Dario Zintu who made no mistake from about ten yards.
The same combination resulted in a second goal for the Italian teenager in the twenty-third minute, and a minute later Oleg Zhigalov almost made it 3-0, but camimat keeper Willman Padilla threw himself to the right to turn the ball away for a corner.
That third goal was only two minutes away, and it was Dario Zintu who completed his hattrick, rising high to power home Igor Bulatov’s cross from the right.
The Ukranian winger turned goalscorer thirteen minutes after the break, calmly rounding the keeper before firing into the empty net.
Three minutes later and Dario Zintu scored his fourth goal, and what a peach it was! Vítor Leocádio yet again ran amok down the left side before firing over an inch-perfect cross that Dario volleyed into the roof of the camimet net.
With sixty-three minutes on the clock, Jake MacConnechy drilled the ball home from the angle of the box to complete the scoring.
“We took our foot off the pedal for the last half hour, but I am very happy with how we played”, said Arjen afterwards. “Vítor and Dario were real stand-outs, but this was an excellent overall team performance”.
The coach joked, “I ribbed Dario at full-time about not getting a double-hattrick, but I think his missed chances later on can be put down to over-eagerness and youthful exhuberance!!” He added, “With age and experience will come more composure, and he’s a sensible enough lad to realise this. His eye for goal is not in doubt, and with the supply he received from both flanks today, he will continue to score goals”.
“Dario is already proving to be a fantastic find for this club, and it’s only a matter of time before he earns the right to a starting berth in the first eleven. Andy and Onesimo know that, and it’s keeping them at the top of their game. This is nothing but good for the club”.
Onésimo Murube wheels away after firing home the opening goal today.
Doubles from Onésimo Murube, Paul O’Healihy and Maranaj Batusha were the highlights in a match that we dominated from start to finish. Athletic’s other two goals came from Eldvinas Šumlinskas and Yann Schories.
Athletic opened the scoring in the twenty-ninth minute, Onésimo Murube slipping his marker to fire home Yann Schories’ cross from close range.
Our second goal of the afternoon came from the penalty spot, the referee having been given one of his easiest calls of the afternoon when Andy Hautala was up-ended in the box. Paul O’Healihy outwitted the home keeper to send him the wrong way and double our lead.
A defensive blunder two minutes later presented Eldvinas Šumlinskas with a chance that he was never going to pass up, and the big Lithuanian duly dispatched the ball into the home net.
Two minutes before the break and Athletic were awarded their second penalty of the afternoon, a decision that could have been seen as being a bit harsh. However, Paul O’Healihy showed no sentiment as he powered the ball into the top left corner of the goal, far beyond the despairing reach of Gaizka Drake.
The home side were in total collapse, but were given a reprieve when the half-time whistle blew.
That reprieve however lasted until only six minutes after the break when Drake and central defender Bennie Snoeij left the ball to each other allowing Onésimo Murube to nip in and knock the ball home for his second and Athletic’s fifth.
Completely confident in their lead, Athletic were really knocking the ball around well, and from one of those swift decisive interchange of passes just after the hour mark that Yann Schories came in from the right to slam the ball into the net to make it 6-0.
Athletic slowed the pace at this point, however the scoring was far from over. Fourteen minutes before the end, hesitancy in the home defence allowed Maranaj Batusha to race through and thunder home the seventh goal.
Two minutes later after an almost identical move, the Italian defender wrapped up the scoring with his second goal of the afternoon.
A clearly delighted Arjen Bogaert said afterwards, “We got the reward today that our play merited. We dominated the match and finished off every chance we made. I can’t ask more than that”.
He added, “What particularly pleases me is that our goals today came from every area of the pitch. We’re sharing out the goals, and the goal scoring duties are not being left up to the forwards alone”.
“We’ve got the best goal difference in the league, and now we’ve got to reign in Accretia’s lead. With the final match of the season being against them, we’ve got to attempt to get back on level terms before then”.
Athletic will play host to Equadorian Serie IV.42 leaders, camimat next Wednesday. Kick-off is at 10:30 BST.
Eric Belford netted his first senior goal as the reserves eased to a 3-1 win over Kitakyushu Killers in Japan this morning.
Killers opened the scoring in the ninth minute through Olivér Dékány, however their lead was short-lived as Daniel Hasnaş powered home a header eight minutes later.
Yann Schories almost gave Athletic the lead with twenty-three minutes on the clock, but Vitorino Conceição in the Killers’ goal managed to turn the ball away for a corner.
Athletic went in front from the penalty spot six minutes before the break, Paul O’Healihy doing the business.
Yann Schories rattled the Killers’ crossbar two minutes after the break, however with neither side seeming able to break through again, the match settled into something of a midfield stalemate.
In the seventy-second minute, Arjen Bogaert decided to freshen up the attack and replaced Daniel Hasnaş with Eric Belford, a decision that was to pay almost immediate dividends.
Only two minutes after coming on, Eric was in the right place to fully capitalise on a defensive mix-up to slam the ball home and record his first senior strile for the club.
Yann Schories almost increased the lead two minutes later, but yet again the home keeper denied the German.
After this point the match petered out, with no further chances.
“We had a good win today without playing particularly well”, was Arjen Bogaert’s assessment. “We must start to convert our possession superiority into goals, but this is the only downside”, he said.
“Eric did really well to get his first goal for the senior team, and it will boost his confidence no end. He can now progress with that monkey off his back”.
Andy Hautala fires home his first goal of the game to double Athletic's lead.
In front of almost a full house at New Home Park, Athletic finally took the lead in the thirty-seventh minute. Following some fine work on the left, Vítor Leocádio’s driven cross was met first time by Onésimo Murube who buried the ball behind Anselm Vahl in the Rovers goal.
The visitors were playing a high-risk strategy of counter-attacking, but with Athletic dominating possession and breaking up any attacks launched by the visitors, once we went in front, the writing was on the wall for Rovers.
Five minutes after the break it was 2-0, Andy Hautala powering through the centre of the Rovers defence before dispatching the ball past Anselm Vahl, and eighteen minutes later the Englishman got his second in similar circumstances to make the points secure.
Despite winning the match convincingly, Arjen Bogaert was a little disappointed by the performance, saying, “I feel we could really have won by much more today had we pressed home our advantage. We got the three points though and reduced the gap between ourselves and the leaders, so overall I won’t dwell on it”.
He concluded, “We face the bottom club next weekend, and we will be looking to significantly improve our goal difference”.
The reserves will be on the road again next week, this time travelling to Japan to face Kitakyushu Killers on Wednesday morning.
Athletic’s reserves recorded and excellent 2-0 win, at altitude in Quito, Ecuador against Corinthians Pomasqui last night. Both goals came in the second half from on-form Dario Zintu and stand-in winger Marcus Lövman.
In fact, had it not been for home keeper Ola Johansson, the scoreline could have been more emphatic as Arjen Bogaert alluded to when he spoke following the game.
“I am very pleased with our display tonight, especially as we are unaccustomed to playing at altitude. I feel we adapted to the conditions exceptionally well and altered our usual game-plan to suit. It worked a treat, and had their keeper not had such a good game, we could have perhaps scored more”.
He continued, “The goals that we did score were well executed and in our build up play throughout the whole match was very good. We played the match at a much slower pace than normal, but we weren’t adversely affected by this”.
Commenting on Dario Zintu keeping up his goal per game average he said, “Dario is continuing his prolific scoring rate, and with his overall fitness coming on well, it will only be a matter of time before he is knocking on the door of the first team starting line up”.
This is Brook Street 