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Joe Anderson fires home to send us on the way to victory and with it the League Title.
It’s fair to say that Doc XI’s chances of defeating Glasgow Giants had been written-off before a ball was kicked despite being at home, and with Claus Christoph Gralath on record saying that Brook Street were concentrating on securing three points to ensure they would go into the final game of the season with a three point lead, the scene was set for a remarkable afternoon.
As both matches kicked-off, news filtered through that Giants had made five changes to their starting line-up and whether or not they were saving players for next weekend, it was certainly a bold move.
The match at the LJG started off as a very cagey affair with Hootenanny happy to drop off and maintain their formation while giving up possession to Brook Street. On the other hand the home side seemed happy enough to knock the ball around and probe for weaknesses.
However with eighteen minutes played, a wall of noise filtered through the home support with the news that Doc XI were one-up. As things stood, Brook Street would be champions, but there was still a long, long way to go and anything could happen.
In days gone by fans would have been listening to transistor radios to keep tabs on rivals while watching the match, but today, almost everyone was glued to their mobile phones and paying next to no attention to the game they were attending.
That became all too evident when in the twenty-second minute the home fans erupted in unison to the news that Phillip McGyver had put Doc XI two-up.
Six minutes later, the home support were on their feet again when Joe Anderson picked up the ball in the middle of the park and headed off towards goal. Successfully evading a number of challenges, some of which were agricultural to say the least, he bore down on goal before rifling the ball high into the net to send the home fans into delerium.
As things stood, the Championship was coming to the LJG but a 1-0 lead is never enough. Seven minutes before the break however, any nerves were settled when Bogusz Cacek cut the ball back to Vassilis Taxiarchou at the edge of the box and the big defender drove the ball home.
Brook Street had their tails up now and went in for the kill. With forty-two minutes played the visiting defence were pulled out of position by some swift passing on the Brook Street right allowing Holger Painter a free run in on goal. He easily outfoxed the visiting keeper and planted the ball in the net to increase Brook Street’s lead.
A minute later and Brook Street received a set-back when Bogusz Cacek received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. That takes him over the points threshold and he will now be suspended for the final game of the season.
In a bizarre final minute of the half, Brook Street struck twice to kill the tie stone dead.
The first goal was classic route one football and came from Connor Hutton who was first to reach a ball launched long through the center by Vassilis Taxiarchou. He calmly brought the ball under control and fired the ball low to the goalkeeper’s left and into the net.
Straight from the re-start, Diego Misuraca stole the ball and fed it out to Conor Meldrum on the right. Conor advanced down the wing before swinging the ball over. Diego had continued his run and met the ball square on his forehead. The ball may have taken a deflection off Nic Bartels on the way in, but Diego was claiming it!
Brook Street had dominated possession in the first half and continued to boss the game after the break. They did however have the luxury of being able to take their foot off the pedal with title rivals Glasgow Giants trailing Doc XI 2-0 after the first forty-five.
Just before the hour mark and with his last involvement of the season, Bogusz Cacek scored his fourteenth and final goal of the season. Receiving the ball in the middle of the park he set off directly towards the Hootenanny goal. Having successfully evaded all of the attempts to stop him, he slammed the ball into the net to finish off a tremendous solo run and cap a superb season for the midfielder.
With the crowd still on it’s feet, Claus Christoph chose to bring Bogusz off so he would recieve the plaudits his season deserved.
Lewis Espley came on to replace him in the first a Brook Street double substitutions; Paul Hughes also came on in place of Joe Anderson.
Paul Hughes had a fantastic opportunity to put Brook Street up another goal sixty-seven minutes into the match after a pass through the middle set him free, but he snatched at the shot and fired just over the crossbar.
Five minutes later Diego Misuraca should have put his side further ahead after breaking through the middle, but some great goalkeeping by Quim Borges kept the score semi-respectible.
However the respite was short-lived as some sharp passing between the Brook Street midfielders ripped open the Hootenanny defence and Lewis Espley was able to storm through on goal and fire the ball home to complete the scoring.
With the fans celebrating a Division III Play-Off at worst, news filtered through in the eighty-sixth minute that Ian Hutchison had scored a third goal for Doc XI and with it, the league title was Brook Street’s with a game to spare.
“It’s nothing less than the players deserve. The team spirit in this group is outstanding”, was Brook Street Coach Claus Christoph Gralath’s initial assessment at full-time. “However, our work is not done yet; we still have a game to go next week and we need to win it to ensure automatic promotion”.
He continued, “But that is for next week. Tonight we will celebrate our title!”
Elsewhere, Doc XI’s 3-0 win over Glasgow Giants had little bearing on their position with fifth place and a Relegation Play-Off spot already assured; Dutch Lions strengthened their grip on third place with a 5-0 win at home to Bankhall FC, a result that saw Bankhall officially relegated; and AFC Ravens lifted themselves out of the automatic relegation places with a 4-0 home win over FC McMoney.
Kari Kienberger sits out tomorrow’s game after his ordering off last weekend, but will he be joined by players walking the suspension tightrope?
Claus Christoph is however only concerned with securing another three points tomorrow.
“We have to put all talk of league titles out of our minds for the time being and concentrate on our job tomorrow”, he said. He continued, “We need to win against Hootenanny to ensure we go into the final game of the season with a three point advantage over Giants. By doing so we secure ourselves a play-off place at worst as there’s no way we will see Giants overhaul our goal advantage”.
Brook Street will however be without Kari Kienberger who is suspended following his red card last weekend.
“Kari sitting this one out is disappointing but we have more than adequate cover for his position so anyone coming in will fit right in”, the Brook Street coach said.
With everyone else available, it is unlikely that Claus Christoph will make many changes, although he may choose to wrap up some of the players sitting on two bookings to ensure they are available for the final match of the season in Glasgow.
Kick-off tomorrow is at 16:30 as usual.
Bogusz Cacek hammers Brook Street into the lead against FC McMoney this afternoon.
The league leaders were dominant throughout and took the lead after only four minutes whem Bogusz Cacek cut in from the right before slamming the ball home.
Within sixty seconds it was 2-0 as Brook Street went for the kill. A swift exchange of passes between Kari Kienberger, Bogusz Cacek and Joe Anderson carved an opening in the home defence. An inch-perfect through ball found Kalle Konkka and the midfielder stormed through on goal before planting the ball in the net.
There seemed to be no danger when a miss-hit through ball bounced at the edge of the McMoney eighteen yard box, but when the home keeper and his defenders left the ball to each other to clear, Zak Ailstock pounced to drive the ball into the net to make the score 3-0
Just before the half-hour mark, Brook Street were awarded a penalty when Connor Hutton went down in the box. Bogusz Cacek stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way to increase the lead to four goals.
Four minutes later, the home defence collapsed in the face of pressure, allowing Joe Anderson to capitalise on a mistake the home side’s right flank. Collecting the ball just outside the box he spotted McMoney keeper Callum Heatly off his line, and with the most delicate of touches he lifted the ball over the keeper and into the net to make it 5-0 at the break.
With sixty-six minutes played Brook Street made it 6-0 and most of the remaining home fans headed for the exits. Joe Anderson picked up a terrific through ball from Diego Misuraca and with keeper Callum Heatly racing off his line, calmy chipped the ball over the diving keeper and into the net.
A minute later it could have been seven, but Vassilis Taxiarchou’s free-kick rebounded off the crossbar with the keeper beaten all ends up.
With fifteen minutes to go Kari Kienberger increased Brook Street’s lead when he volleyed home Conor Meldrum’s cross from the right, but three minutes later he was heading for the dressing room after picking up his second yellow card of the game.
Down to ten men, most spectators expected Brook Street to just shut up shop and see out the game with the points already won, but instead went looking for more goals, and with ten minutes remaining they scored number eight.
Pressing the home defence saw Conor Meldrum pick up the ball in an advanced position following a mix-up, but with everyone expecting him to swing the ball over to the back post where Joe Anderson was lurking, he played a perfectly weighted cutback to Tibor Koteczky who rifled the ball low and hard into the net from about twenty-five yards out.
Brook Street weren’t done yet though and a minute later Vassilis Taxiarchou, now playing in the area vacated by Kari Kienberger, was played through following a quick exchange of passes in midfield. The big defender steadied himself before firing the ball high into the net to complete the scoring.
While Claus Christoph was happy with the performance and the three points it brought, he was less-so about Kari Kienberger’s red card.
“Kari should have walked away. Yes the original challenge whas shocking and merited ast least a yellow, but it was made to get a reaction. Kari took the bait and got a second yellow for the foul that he committed just afterwards. He’ll be fined by the club and hopefully he will learn from the incident”.
He continued, “Unfortunately Kari wasn’t one of the players sitting on two yellow cards, so they are all still walking the suspension tightrope for our final game and could miss out. He however will be available for selection”.
In the other games, Glasgow Giants kept the title race going with a 7-1 win at home to Hootenanny FC, Dutch Lions got back to winning ways with a 6-0 away thumping of AFC Ravens and Doc XI made it two wins on the bounce with a 3-0 victory at Bankhall.
With two games to go, Brook Street realistically now stand one win away from the title. Giants remain three points behind but with a goal difference thirty worse off a win for Brook Street next weekend at home to Hootenanny FC would almost certainly land them the title. Lions and Hootenanny are both tied on twenty-four points, but Lions have a thirty-three goal advantage.
Doc XI will finish in fifth place and will face a play-off, but the big question remaining is which two of the three remaining sides will be relegated: FC McMoney; AFC Ravens: or Bankhall FC. Watch this space!
Kari Kienberger netted a screamer the last time the sides met.
“We’ve been playing well in recent weeks and scoring freely. We’ve built up a good momentum and it’s up to us to keep that going in the run-in”. He continued, “We have three games remaining and on paper this is probably the easiest of them, but that doesn’t mean that we can take things easy. We will be pushing forward until the final whistle of the final game”.
Asked if he was concerned about the side picking up yellow cards he said, “We have a number of players walking a tightrope, and it’s possible we might go into the final one or two games with someone out through suspension. However, we have players capable of walking straight into the side, so it’s not really a big problem for us at all”.
He added, “Injuries have posed us more problems this season, so I’d be more concerned about players picking up serious injuries if I’m being honest”.
Claus Christoph has no concerns for tomorrow however with a full squad to select from.
Connor Hutton looks on as his shot evades Bankhall keeper Al Milton to complete his hattrick.
Connor Hutton returned to the starting line-up following injury, and it was he who proved to be Bankhall’s nemesis, netting a hattrick on his return.
Brook Street were slow to get going, and it took them until the nineteenth minute to finally make the breakthrough.
Conor Meldrum was giving his marker a torid time and having turned him inside out swung over a tempting cross. The ball was too high for Connor Hutton to get his head on it, but dropped perfectly for the onrushing Zak Ailstock who blasted the ball high into the net with a stunning volley.
Six minutes later and it was 2-0 as Connor Hutton broke through and fired home from an acute angle.
Time and again the home defence were being caught flat-footed by the speed of Brook Street’s passing, so it came as no surprise that the league leaders increased their lead just after the half-hour mark.
A snappy interchange of passes had the visitors chasing shadows and allowed Conor Meldrum to break through. Conor doesn’t pass up these chances and he struck the ball home from twelve yards.
So the score was 3-0 at the break, and six minutes after the re-start it became 4-0 as Joe Anderson stormed through the centre of the Bankhall defence and calmly slotted the ball home.
Brook Street were in complete control of the game and went five-up in the sixty-second minute when Connor Hutton finished off a superb solo run with a finish to match.
Things were going from bad to worse for Bankhall, and seven minutes later, in an almost identical move that resulted in his second goal of the game, Connor Hutton marked his return from injury by completing his hattrick.
With twenty minutes remaining, Claus Christoph decided to bring on Kalle Konkka in place of Zak Ailstock, and it was the Finn who wrapped up the scoring five minutes from time with a towering header from Conor Meldrum’s cross from the right.
“We played some terrific football and I don’t think the scoreline flatters us at all”, claimed the Brook Street coach afterwards. He continued, “Connor Hutton was in sensational form and showed how frustrated he has been sitting in the stand these past few weeks. His link-up play with Conor Meldrum was excellent, and Conor himself had a fantastic game”.
“Our performance today shows everyone that we are not going to ease up in the run-in”.
Elsewhere, Ernie McPhee’s seventy-fifth minute strike was all that separated Dutch Lions and Glasgow Giants when it looked as though Giants were going to drop two points; Hootenanny FC romped to a 7-0 win at home to FC McMoney and Doc XI recorded their first win with a 3-1 win at home to AFC Ravens.
With three games remaining, Brook Street remain three points clear at the top with a goal difference of plus sixty, Giants are hot on their heels with thirty points but a goal difference of only plus thirty, Hootenanny FC are in third with twenty-four points and Dutch Lions are back in fourth with twenty-one points.
Connor Hutton is set to make a welcome return to the side tomorrow following injury.
“Although we’ve been winning, we’ve recently not being playing as well as we can. We won the reverse fixture 7-0 and I am looking for a similar performance tomorrow”.
He continued, “We’ve been standing off teams too much and I’ve told the players what I expect of them tomorrow”.
Brook Street recieved some good news this morning when it was confirmed that Connor Hutton has completely recovered from injury and will be available tomorrow. Claus Christoph also confirmed that Kalle Konkka’s ankle twist wasn’t as bad as feared and he too will be available, although he may be limited to a short run-out from the bench as a precaution.
“Having the two players available is certainly a bonus for us”, he said. “Connor will come straight back in, but we might just bring Kalle on from the bench to ease him back in. We don’t want to aggravate the ankle unnecessarily so it seems like the sensible thing to do”.
Kick off tomorrow is at 16:30 and tickets are still available.
Kari Kienberger blasts home his third goal to put Brook Street 5-0 up.
The league leaders had the chance to take the lead in the first five minutes of the game, but the normally reliable Bogusz Cacek had a howler and fired the ball straight into the arms of Doc keeper Rhys Bleach who didn’t even need to move to make the save.
With eleven minutes played Brook Street edged in front when Kari Kienberger stormed through the middle before driving the ball past Rhys Bleach.
Brook Street weren’t turning their dominance into goals, an their profligacy in the opposition box caused Claus Christoph a significant amount of irritation as he prowled his technical area.
His mood certainly wasn’t going to be improved when Vassilis Taxiarchou blasted wide when unmarked in front of goal in twenty-four minutes or a minute later when the home side’s Jim Rust got a shot off.
Although it ended in the side netting, it was a wake-up call for Brook Street, and Claus Christoph barked orders to his players.
Within three minutes, those instructions paid dividends when Joe Anderson came in from the right and shot low and hard across the home keeper and into the net.
Brook Street upped their game again and with thirty-five minutes played, showed their class as a swift interchange of passes had the home players chasing shadows and allowed Bogusz Cacek to race through on goal. Making up for his spot-kick aberration earlier in the game, he blasted the ball high into the net to put the league leaders 3-0 up at the break.
Only a last ditch goal-line intervention by one of the home defenders prevented Kalle Konkka from adding to Brook Street’s lead in the fifty-seventh minute. A minute later and his game would be over after he twisted his ankle.
Zak Ailstock came on as his replacement and made an immediate impact, playing the ball through for Kari Kienberger who unleashed an unstoppable shot that powered into the Doc XI net.
Midway through the half Brook Street wrapped up the win, and it was Kari Kienberger again who completed his hat-trick with a tremendous strike.
It capped a fine performance by the Swiss midfielder, who his coach said is “maturing into a fine player”. Over-all however Claus Christoph wasn’t happy with his side’s performance.
“We were well off the pace today and should have put this game to bed far sooner than we did”. He continued, “That we only had a narrow lead for so long gave our opponents confidence, and we were possibly a little fortunate that they didn’t score when we were only 1-0 up”.
“Our finishing wasn’t at its best, but we also didn’t put them under nearly enough pressure. Against a stronger team, that could have cost us. Fortunately, Kari [Kienberger] had his shooting boots on!”. he added.
Speaking of the hat-trick hero, Claus Christoph said, “Kari has had to wait to get his chance, but he’s worked hard and when the chance to play today, he’s seized it with both hands”.
He continued, “That’s his first career hattrick and it’s clear that he is maturing into a fine player. I’m certain he will be a big player for us going forward”.
Asked about the injury to Kalle Konkka he admitted, “He’s twisted his ankle and it’s likely he’ll be out of action for the next few days. However we’re hopeful we’ll have him available for the game next weekend.
The win kept up Brook Street’s unbeaten run in the league, and with four games remaining they remain three points clear of Glasgow Giants who had a 2-0 win at Bankhall FC. In other games, Dutch Lions romped to an 8-0 thumping of FC McMoney at FC McMoney Arena while fourth-placed Hootenanny FC had a narrow 3-2 away win at AFC Ravens
Connor Hutton sits out tomorrow’s match following his injury last weekend.
“We had a look at them in their midweek friendly match, but you can’t really tell anything from those”, said Claus Christoph this afternoon. “We could face the same line-up or a completely different one, we just don’t know, so we’ve concentrated on our own game this week and they can try to work out how to stop us”.
He continued, “Regardless of the side we field, on paper we should beat them and beat them comfortably. All we have to do is make sure we don’t have any slip-ups and win our one-on-one battles. Do those things and, with all due respect, we have nothing to fear”.
Brook Street will be without Connor Hutton through injury, but Claus Christoph was unfazed by this saying, “Yes it’s disappointing to be without Connor, but both Paul Hughes and Davie McKallon are very capable replacements and I have no doubt that either would do a very good job for me.
Tickets purchased for the original match against Athletic Hippies remain valid and kick-off at Doc Arena is at 16:30.
Brook Street will be heading to the west coast and a match against Doc XI on Saturday after the demise of Athletic Hippies.
Talking of the news this morning, Claus Christoph Gralath said, “Fortunately we have been notified before we started our preparations and training for Saturday’s game, so the impact will really be negligible”. He continued, “Had it been later in the week and we were part of the way through our preparations, it would have been very disruptive and I would have been facing you and complaining bitterly”.
“You’ve got off lightly”, laughed the Brook Street coach.
“In some ways it could be a trickier game for us as we’re playing blind with nothing to reference”, he said. “But hopefully they will be playing a friendly in midweek and we can get a look at them. That at least will be better than nothing”.
The league have also confirmed that Brook Street’s ticket allocation for the game in Aberdeen will now be valid for the game against Doc XI.
Vassilis Taxiarchou powers home a header from Adam Doyle’s cross to put Athletic 2-0 up.
The visitors’ central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass through to Holger Painter in the sixth minute, but the big defender managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot across Calvin Batch and into the net at the far post to give Brook Street the lead.
However, there was a huge setback for Brook Street in the twelfth minute when Connor Hutton was stretchered off in a state of distress, having gone down with what looked like a bad ankle injury. Paul Hughes came on as his replacement.
The match was played at a pedestrian pace after this, but it erupted into life in the last five minutes of the half.
After 40 minutes, Vassilis Taxiarchou put Athletic 2-0 up when he slipped his marker to power home an Adam Doyle cross from the right wing.
Then a minute later it was 3-0 when a magnificent combination in the middle played Joe Anderson through. His initial shot rebounded back off the crossbar, but he was perfectly positioned to volley the rebound high into the net with Ravens keeper Calvin Batch rooted to the spot.
Ravens were reeling by this point, but things were about to get even worse for them.
With two minutes to go in the half, a lazy pass by between the visitors’ midfielders was intercepted by Paul Hughes who broke through and fired the ball past the statuesque Calvin Batch.
Indeed, the scoreline could have been even worse at the break had Kalle Konkka’s forty-fourth minute volley been on target.
The second half was a bit of a slow burner, but Paul Hughes kicked it into life in the sixty-seventh minute when he unleashed a thunderbolt that Calvin Batch did exceptionally well to tip wide.
Five minutes later Brook Street were awarded a penalty which appeared to be soft at best. Despite the ongoing protestations of the Ravens players, Bogusz Cacek was a picture of calm as he walked up placed the ball on the spot and buried it in the net.
The penalty award had the Ravens players rattled and they were clearly distracted when they switched off three minutes later when Joe Anderson broke throught. Fortunately for them, his shot hit the post and bounced to safety.
However, with almost the last kick of the game, Brook Street made it 6-0. A swift exchange of passes released Kalle Konkka who raced through and beat Calvin Batch all ends up to complete the scoring.
Claus Christoph admitted that it wasn’t a vintage performance, but did secure three more points and another clean sheet.
“We did what we had to do to secure the win”, he said. “Don’t misunderstand me, we played some excellent football and scored great goals, but we were well within our capabilities”.
Asked about the ankle injury to Connor Hutton he replied, “At the moment it doesn’t look too good and he’s with the medical team, but they initially thought he might be out for two weeks. We’ll just have to wait and see”.
He continued, “We are fortunate that we had Paul Hughes available to come in and he made an impact, scoring one and coming very close to getting a second”.
“Adam Doyle also came in and played very well, getting himself an assist in his first league start”.
He continued, “We have fine young players at this club and they are now getting their chance to come into the first team and show everyone what they can do. They are taking that opportunity and performing very well while gaining valuable experience. That will serve them and the club well in the future”.
Elsewhere, Glasgow Giants maintained their challenge with a 7-0 home win over FC McMoney, Dutch Lions came from a goal down to defeat Athletic Hippies 5-1 at home, and Hootenanny FC went nap at home to Bankhall FC to consolidate their position in fourth place.
So Brook Street remain out in front with twenty-seven points, Glasgow Giants are three points behind with an inferior goal difference. Dutch Lions and Hootenanny FC are tied on eighteen points, but Lions have a vastly superior goal difference. Into the bottom half, and Athletic Hippies have nine points, McMoney FC are on six , while Bankhall FC and AFC Ravens are tied on three at the foot of the table.
This is Brook Street 