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Aldo Pellone has his head in his hands as the final whistle blows and Brook Street crash to their first league defeat since the opening day of the season.
It was a game that appeared to be going to plan with Brook Street one-up through a Bogusz Cacek, but second half goals from Kritsada Juntip and Helmer Dalsgård skewered any chance of Brook Street maintaining any pressure on Red Star.
The league leaders may have slumped to dropping two points at the hands of St Andrew, but Brook Street went ome point better (or worse) by losing all three.
“We have a squad that should have won this game plain and simple, and the fact they didn’t is simply baffling”, said Balz Deitz afterwards. “We have left the players under no illusion that their performance was nowhere near good enough and nowhere near their capabilities”.
He continued, “We will go again against Badger Loyal next Saturday, but we know that we need to pick up full points against them next week and hope they do us a favour when they play Red Star the following weekend. With that, it’s ‘winner takes all’ in the final fixture, but with any slip ups the game is over”.
“It’s all hugely disappointing”, he concluded.
Callum Ironmonger scored his first and so far only goal of the season the last time the sides met.
Erratic form and a number of disappointing results including a 7-1 mauling by Athletic have all but killed off St Andrew’s challenge this season, but they remain the only side to take points off Red Star and as such should be “treated with caution and respect”, according to Balz Deitz.
Speaking to This Is Brook Street yesterday afternoon Balz said, “When we met earlier in the season, we could do no wrong and every time we shot at goal, it seemed like it went in”.
“That was a really sore one for them and I know they will be looking for revenge tomorrow”, he added. “We have to be alert to this and ensure we don’t slip up”.
“We got back into the title race thanks to their surprise draw against Red Star. We must ensure that we don’t slip up and hand the initiative back to the league leaders”.
With the exception of long-term casualty Tibor Koteczky, Balz Deitz has a full squad to choose from and kick-off is at 16:30.
Conor Meldrum blasts Brook Street into the lead at Highland Cathedral this afternoon.
It was an impressive performance from Balz Deitz’s side who were strong throughout and keeps them right in the title race as the season goes into the run-in.
Conor Meldrum blasted home his second goal of the season with a real piledriver after fourteen minutes and Bogusz Cacek doubled the lead nine minutes later with a peach of a free-kick which gave Simon Wiggleton in the Braves goal absolutely no chance.
Bogusz all but made the game safe seven minutes before the break with his second of the game, while the second half was something of a ‘non-event’ as the home side went into damage limitation mode while Brook Street were happy enough to knock the ball around.
With ten minutes to go however Raúl Colen found a way through and fired the ball low past Simon Wiggleton into the net to wrap up the scoring and spark a mass exodus of the remaining home fans.
“We were very professional in the way we approached the game and we got our reward with four goals”, said Balz Deitz afterwards.
“This could have been a potential banana skin for us so the fact we got such a good result proves how good our gameplan was and how well the players executed it”, he added.
The win keeps Brook Street just a point behind Red Star with only four games remaining. Next up for Brook Street is a trip to Paisley next Saturday to face St Andrew while Red Star host Braves.
“For us patience has to be the key. I’ve said it many times but it still holds true; if we follow the gameplan the goals will come” – Balz Deitz
“We know they’ll keep it tight so we have to play smart if we are to break them down”, said Balz Deitz this afternoon.
“We struggled against them earlier in the season and were fortunate to get the early goal before they pulled the shutters down”, he added.
He continued, “For us patience has to be the key. I’ve said it many times but it still holds true; if we follow the gameplan the goals will come”.
With the exception of Tibor Koteczky, Balz has a full squad to select from although he admitted he has not made a final decision on the formation tomorrow.
Kick-off at Highland Cathedral is at 16:30.
Tibor Koteczky’s season appears to be over after he picked up a bad injury this afternoon.
That the midfielder got his marching orders for the challenge paled into insignificance when the news broke of the severity of the injury, one which Balz Deitz admitted afterwards could see the veteran defender hang up his boots.
“It is clearly of concern as he has only come back from a bad injury three weeks ago, and it looks like his season is now over”, said the coach. “Tibor is now approaching thirty-eight years of age and it takes much longer for him to recover now”, said Balz.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned he could be contemplating his future following this new setback, especially as it comes so closely after another lengthly lay-off”, he admitted.
It took the gloss off of what was a good performance by the Monifieth side as they raced to a 4-0 half-time lead through goals from Kari Kienberger and Connor Hutton before a brace from Joe Anderson.
Further goals from Alex Marker and Bogusz Cacek had Brook Street out of sight when Tibor entered the fray with twenty minutes to go, but his game would last only four minutes before Sváda went over the ball with yet another studs-first tackle and took the Brook Street player out of not only the game, but possibly the season.
“To be honest, it was a terrific performance”, Balz said afterwards, “but after Tibor’s injury, no-one was really interested. It killed the game stone dead”.
No-one in the stadium would disagree with that as the atmosphere went totally flat for the final fifteen minutes, despite it being such a good win for the home side.
Early reports indicate that Tibor Koteczky will be out for four weeks at least.
Connor Hutton hit a hat-trick when the sides met last month at Love Street.
Following tomorrow’s game Brook Street face three tricky ties namely Braves away, St Andrew away and the resurgent Badger Loyal at the LJG, so Balz Deitz’s side will want to build the momentum gained from their recent successes.
“We’ve been playing well despite having some difficult games and we of course want that to continue”, the coach said.
“Tomorrow’s game is perhaps one of the easier ones, but that doesn’t mean we will be treating it any differently. We have got ourselves back into contention through hard work and we are not about to throw that away by taking the foot off the pedal or through lack of concentration”, he added.
He continued, “We had a very good win against them earlier in the season and I’ll be looking for more of the same tomorrow. The players are desperate to succeed and get out of this division and are working hard to achieve that”.
With no reported injuries, Balz will have a full squad to select from.
Bogusz Cacek wheels away after scoring what proved to be the decisive goal from the spot.
Brook Street burst out of the traps and quickly gained the upper hand with Kari Kienberger stinging Stirling keeper Garth MacGirr’s fingertips with two goal attempts in quick succession.
Benito Buda was called into action just before the quarter-hour mark when he blocked a half-chance, but that was merely a minor break in almost one-way traffic.
When Conor Meldrum swung in a cross in the nineteenth minute the referee spotted a high boot in the box and pointed straight to the spot. Given the lack of protests from the home players it would appear that the officials got the decision right.
With the ball on the spot Bogusz Cacek stepped up and went for power against Garth MacGirr who was having a good game. The Stirling keeper got his fingers to it, but Bogusz’s decision to put his laces through the ball proved correct and it had too much behind it for MacGirr to keep it out, much to the keeper’s disgust.
With Stirling sticking resolutely to their ultra-defensive formation there were few opportunities for Brook Street although five minutes before the break, Raúl Colen managed to burst down the left before firing a low drive goalwards that rattled Garth MacGirr’s right-hand post before being cleared.
If real goalmouth chances were few and far between in the first half, they were even more scarce in the second and only Kari Kienberger’s rushed and poor attempt with eleven minutes to go was the only effort on goal.
With that, Brook Street secured the points to keep the pressure on Red Star who only got the upper hand in Paisley with three minutes to go.
“We stuck to our gameplan and didn’t lose sight of our objective”, said Balz Deitz after the match. “We had to be patient, but we got the break when it mattered most. We’d squandered a few chances and their keeper was having a good game, but Bogusz stepped up to the mark”.
On Stirling playing 5-5-0 he said, “I can see why they did it as their confidence is bound to be low following three defeats on the bounce, but in the end it has failed and they threw away a chance to attack us and now they’ve lost four in a row”.
He finished by saying, “More importantly however we are now seven league games unbeaten and still breathing down the necks of Red Star”.
Dylan MacIttrick is Brook Street’s only injury doubt ahead of their trip to Stirling tomorrow.
“Yes, it’s obviously a concern”, admitted Balz Deitz this afternoon. “While we have back-up alternatives in other positions, that is not the case with the goalkeeper position”.
He continued, “It’s not even a case of simply promoting our academy keeper or entering the transfer market as it’s just a knock and not a long-term injury, so maybe we’ll just have to go without a back-up if necessary. The decision on whether Dylan will be on the bench will however be a last-minute decision”.
Stirling’s form seems to have fallen off a cliff over the last few weeks and they have now gone three games without taking any points, plummeting from league leaders to fourth place in the process. However as last Saturday proved this wounded animal is particularly dangerous and deserves the utmost respect.
“We have an excellent record against Stirling”, said Balz Deitz, “but they have improved every season we have faced them so we know we have to be on our game. Fortunately however we have also improved”.
He continued, “We know they’ll give us a hard game but we know we can beat them and we know how to go about it. There is no reason for us to fear anything if we play to our strengths and play the gameplan”.
“That said, we will give them all due respect as they are a good side”, he added.
This is Brook Street 