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Conor Meldrum fires the ball home to open the scoring this afternoon.
However, those nerves were eased eight minutes before the break when Brook Street finally made the breakthrough.
Conor Meldrum had had a quiet game and there seemed to be no danger when he picked up the ball wide on the right. He moved forward and feigned as if he was going outside before cutting in wrong-footing Enzo Stirling defender Paolo Buonincontri. With only Paul Babatunde to beat, Conor fired the ball across the keeper and into the net.
Brook Street were beginning to take more control of the game as it entered the second half, but time and again Stirling closed ranks to snuff out any move.
Zak Ailstock took matters into this own hands and broke through from midfield with sixty-five minutes played. He evaded a couple of challenges before driving the ball into the net giving the Stirling keeper absolutely no chance.
With only nine minutes remaining Kalle Konkka stung the fingertips of Paul Babatunde with a real piledriver as it appeared as if Brook Street would coast to full-time. However, just three minutes later the LJG was stunned to silence when the bounce of the ball deceived Alex Marker and Stirling’s Quinten Willems took full advantage to fire his side right back into the game.
This could have made for a nervy last six minutes, but just two minutes after conceding, Kari Kienberger dribbled through the entire Stirling defence to restore Brook Street’s two-goal advantage and secure the win.
While happy with the three points, Balz Deitz was less so with his side’s performance.
“We didn’t show nearly enough inventiveness to break them down. They were happy to sit in and soak up all the pressure and it’s telling that our goals all came from individual efforts. We need to show that little bit of class in our play that was missing today”.
Zak Ailstock drives the ball low into the net to open the scoring in the reverse fixture at Stirling.
Given the respective run-ins of the top three sides, Brook Street are clearly rank outsiders, but coach Balz Deitz is concerned only with the performance of his own side.
“We can do nothing about other team’s results, so I see no point in wasting time focussing on them. We have to keep winning and accumulating points with the aim of finishing as high as we can and that is all I am concerned with”.
He continued, “Overall, I think we are having a good season. We’ve changed a lot regarding the way we play, and players have come in yet we’ve still performed well. Of course there have been a couple of poor performances, but we were up against a good side and were perhaps a little unlucky”.
Turning to tomorrow’s game he said, “We had a decent win against them earlier in the season and I’m looking for a repeat performance. We’re free of injuries and suspensions so I have a full squad to select from. I’ll be making my final line-up decision much closer to kick-off”.
Joe Anderson watches on as his shot evades pars keeper Jock Whitechurch to open the scoring this afternoon
Indeed, had it not been for some top drawer saves from pars keeper Jock Whitechurch, the scoreline could have been even more emphatic.
Kari Kienberger scored Brook Street’s third after twenty-seven minutes, but the fans had to wait until the sixty-ninth minute for their next goal, Kalle Konkka finishing off low into the net following a fine through ball from Zak Ailstock.
Within a minute however, the pars were given hope when Brook Street were reduced to ten men, Mait Peterson seeing red for his second yellow card of the game. However, despite being a man down, the Blue and Blacks continued to dominate and Connor Hutton rattled the crossbar just four minutes after they had been reduced in numbers.
Brook Street continued to press their opponents and sometimes the home defenders would overstep the mark. With fourteen minutes remaining, one such clash occurred when Connor Hutton got up close and personal with Jacob McBeth in the home penalty box and when the referee spotted stand-in skipper McBeth elbowing the Brook Street striker as they went for the ball, he had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Bogusz Cakek is usually lethal from twelve yards, and so it proved this time when he sent Jock Whitechurch the wrong way and fired the ball low into the left hand corner.
With that the scoring was complete and Brook Street were happy to simply knock the ball around as the clock ran down.
Asked afterwards why his side had chosen to run the clock down at 5-0 instead of going for more goals, Balz Deitz replied, “We were a man down, the game was won and I see no reason to push the boat out going for goals that could cost us”.
He continued, “We’ve still got four games left, and the last thing we need is for players to pick up injuries needlessly that could rule them out for the rest of the season or like today, see them pick up stupid cards”.
“We played a good game, we won, we move on”.
Mait Peterson has become a regular starter in the first team having been given his chance.
It will obviously be difficult to make up the five points they trail Leatherbacks by, especially with only four games left, but the Blue and Blacks squad is certainly not lacking in confidence.
“We’ve worked very hard in training this week and everyone is ready to go”, said Balz Deitz this afternoon. “We may be building for the long term but the players know that they still have to perform here and now, and for the first time since I came here, there is genuine competition for places”.
He continued, “When I came here I said if anyone was good enough they would get their chance. Some senior players have not taken kindly to sitting on the bench, most have rolled up their sleeves and fought for their place, while others have decided to move on. We’ve lowered the average age of the starting line-up and we have a number of exciting prospects in the Academy who will come through over the next season or so. As we build for the future, it is terrific to see young players, the future stars, come into the side”.
“Others such as Mait Peterson are finally establishing themselves in the first team having been given the benefit of a run of games in the starting line-up”.
“That builds confidence, and confidence is what we want”, said Balz. “Losing last weekend was undoubtedly disappointing, but it may also be a good thing as it proved to the players that they had to work hard to earn wins an that they won’t just fall into their laps. We’ll go into tomorrow’s match with this clearly in mind.
Former Academy Graduate Owen Maurice is moving to pastures new after fifteen seasons at Brook Street Athletic.
It was widely known that Owen wanted first team football and he could not be guaranteed that at Brook Street, so he lodged a transfer request. This was agreed to and he has now completed his move to France. We wish him well with his new club.
Brook Street coach Balz Deitz has wasted no time in replacing him and Academy number one Dylan MacIttrick has been promoted to the senior squad.
On the moves, Balz admitted he was disappointed to lose Owen Maurice but “no-one is guaranteed a starting place”. He went on to say that Dylan’s promotion had been brought forward as it was scheduled for the close season.
He added, “Owen knew that Dylan was going to be promoted to the senior squad at the end of the season, so it’s possible he would have left then anyway, so he has instead decided to move now”.
The coach however rejected claims that he had been forced out.
“I would have been delighted if Owen had stayed, but no-one is guaranteed first team football at this club, and everyone has to fight for their place. He wasn’t willing to accept that and chose to move on, as he is perfectly entitled to do. There are certainly no bad feelings”.
Dylan will be on the bench for Saturday’s league match at the pars 1889.
Connor Hutton can’t believe that yet another chance has missed the Leatherbacks goal.
Brook Street took a firm grip on midfield from the first whistle but while they created a number of chances, poor finishing and loss of concentration cost them dear.
The leaders on the other hand created only two and scored probably one of the scruffiest goals seen at the LJG for a number of season from one of them. They all count though and while Leatherbacks left with the three points, Brook Street were left feeling as if they’d had their pockets picked.
“We’ve had two penalty claims, one very strong, turned down, and one shot cleared off the line, but in the end poor finishing and poor decision making has ultimately cost us”, admitted a clearly disappointed Balz Deitz afterwards.
“I feel we should have been awarded a penalty when Kalle Konkka was brought down early on. He’s not the type of player that gets blown over by the wind; he says there was contact and I agree. Unfortunately the referee thought otherwise. Zak’s was maybe just 50/50, but I’ve seen those given before.
He continued, “We controlled midfield throughout the match, but we’ve been caught on the break and were not alert to the danger. The boy has dragged the ball from out under his feet and left the striker with a tap-in. That was a real kick in the guts”.
“Yes of course I’m frustrated; we work hard in training through the week, then today we’ve done everything but score while they get two chances the whole game and leave with a 1-0 win. You’re bound to feel frustrated after that”.
He added, “This has to be a learning experience for the players; they must make the right decisions, they must be more clinical in their finishing and they cannot afford to lose concentration at critical moments. That ultimately was the difference between the sides today and are things we need to work on in training”.
He concluded by saying, “We’ll dust ourselves down and go again next weekend”.
Craig Smart scored Brook Street’s consolation goal at Leatherbacks Arena three weeks ago.
Balz Deitz’s side currently sit two points behind the leaders in third place, behind Ipod Utd only on goal difference. With a near capacity crowd anticipated the LJG will most certainly be rocking, something that Balz is looking forward to.
“Look at the support we’ve got both home and away. For me, that energises you, gives you a buzz and this is where you want to be. You want to be at big club that is challenging”.
“We’re in a good position and this is a club that should always be pushing to get out of this division. There will always be an expectation. It’s a big club, there’s no getting away from that, but it’s one that has underachieved. I’m not going to say we are underdogs however Leatherbacks are very similar to ourselves in that they are building for a push up the leagues and they are perhaps a little ahead of us in that at the moment”.
He continued, “It will be a tight game and I can see there only being a goal in it. We will need to be patient both on the pitch and in the stands”.
Nat Wallace returns to the squad from injury, however he is replaced on the treatment table by Diego Misuraca who misses out having picked up a foot injury in a friendly on Wednesday.
Kalle Konkka chips home the opening goal and the first of his hattrick.
Brook Street made the perfect start, Kalle Konkka firing them into the lead after only five minutes, and the same player made it 2-0 from the penalty spot after Orkney’s Gary Jackson upended Kari Kienberger in the box.
Brook Street didn’t let up however, and Connor Hutton hit his first goal of the season nine minutes before the break to all but seal the win before half-time.
Brook Street were utterly ruthless at the start of the second half and added another two goals within four minutes of the restart, a Zak Ailstock volley and an Aldo Pellone rocket doing the damage.
Brook Street had their hosts chasing shadows but it took until the seventieth minute for them to add number six. It was worth the wait though as Conor Meldrum broke through and stood up Orkney keeper Dunc Maltland before rounding him and firing into the empty net,
Two minutes later, the home defenders and keeper left the ball to each other allowing Kalle Konkka nip in to wrap up the scoring and complete his hat-trick in the process.
With that and no need to take chances ahead of the league leaders’ visit to the LJG next week, Brook Street chose to shut the game down and run down the clock.
Speaking afterwards, Balz Deitz praised his players, saying, “The boys at the top of the pitch, will get the credit but I thought that our defenders were outstanding and allowed us to dictate the game. They were all excellent at the back for us.”
“Our attitude was good, and it had to be. The standards in training have been excellent and it was important we took that into the game, and we did”.
Nat Wallace misses out on the trip to Orkney FC after picking up a knock against FC Spark Almaty
“That was unfortunate”, admitted Balz Deitz before the team left for the airport this morning. “I’m not necessarily saying Nat would have played tomorrow, but you always want a full squad to select from”, he added.
“We’ve had quite a few injuries this season and I had hoped we were entering a quiet phase, but no such luck, Fortunately though it only looks “.
Turning to the match tomorrow he said, “At least we know what we are up against having played them last week, so it won’t be so much of a step into the unknown”.
He continued, “We are looking forward to the trip to Kirkwall. We may not take the ‘foot off the pedal’ as such, but we know that we can score goals against this side and the players are raring to go”.
This is Brook Street 