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Charlie Benham celebrates his extra-time goal which sends Brook Street into the Third Round.
Joe Anderson’s side had twice been behind and survived the visitors hitting the post in the eighty-ninth minute before equalising in stoppage time to take the game into the extra half-hour.
With nineteen minutes of extra-time played and Brook Street’s youngsters wilting badly, Charlie Benham stepped up to score what proved to be the winning goal with no shortage of showboating thrown in for good measure.
That didn’t go down well with the away bench, but the home side certainly weren’t going to be bothered with that as they shut up shop and rode out the last eleven minutes.
Joe Anderson admitted afterwards that he had taken a risk putting that side and formation out, but even so the result had left him somewhat bemused.
“We knew playing 4-4-2 was not our best formation and having Ryan [Caldor] and Tom [Sandman] on for the entire game was asking a lot of them, especially when it went to extra-time, but I asked them both at full-time if they were ok to do the additional half hour and they were more than up for it”.
“They had good lads round them to keep them going and it all worked out well. They’ll feel it tomorrow, but they have gained invaluable experience”.
Asked about Charlie Benham’s rabona finish he replied, “If he had screwed it up I would have throttled him. Fortunately for us both it went in. He’s been told however to keep it simple in future”.
“We scored terrific goals today; Callum Ironmonger’s was a brilliant play and Alex Marker put a vicious curl on that ball to score the equaliser late on. I must admit I thought he’d put it well wide but it kept on bending. It was unstoppable”.
“We also avoided any injuries or cards and Gillis Jacob came through unscathed, so all in all it was a pretty good day at the office”.
Brook Street will now face a tougher challenge in the shape of Division III side Uli Town in the next round.
Aldo Pellone scores Brook Street’s goal in the 2-1 defeat at St Andrew earlier in the season.
The defeat on the third week of the season killed off any realistic chance Brook Street had of challenging for the title, being it their second defeat in just three games. Pay-back for that may be on the minds of some, but Fermín is concentrating more upon keeping the unbeaten run going.
“Although we are within touching distance of Paisley Pirates, there’s no way they’re going to drop points before they come here on the final day of the season, so we must concentrate on our own performance and keep the pressure on, even if it is just a token effort, by winning our remaining games”.
He continued, “We’ve built up a good unbeaten run and I want us to still be unbeaten going into next season”.
Key to the long unbeaten run has been the ability to field a settled side, and although he has lost the services of Raúl Colen in recent weeks Alex Marker has proved to be a more than adequate stand-in.
“Losing Raúl for so long was a blow, but I always wanted strength in depth here and now that I’ve got it, replacing him wasn’t the huge problem it would have been before”.
He added, “That said, Alex [Marker] has been a revelation at wing-back so that’s an added bonus.
Will the exception of Raúl, Fermín has a full squad to select from so don’t expect wholesale changes.
Kick-off as always is at 16:30.
Paul Hughes rounds Elgin keeper Humphrey Cholmondley to fire Brook Street into the lead.
Athletic were 4-0 up after only sixteen minutes through Paul Hughes (2), Aldo Pellone and Joe Anderson, and with the home side opting to ‘park the bus’ for damage limitation at this point, and with the game won and big games coming up for Brook Street, it is perhaps understandable that the visitors took their foot off the pedal.
However a half-time pep talk from Fermín Romero saw them up their scoring efforts and those bore immediate fruit when Alex Marker pounced on a defensive error three minutes after the re-start to put Brook Street five-up.
Paul Hughes completed his hat-trick around the hour mark and Diego Misuraca completed the scoring midway through the half.
Asked about what he said to the players at half-time, Fermín Romero replied, “We just went through the gameplan again and told the players what we thought they could do differently. Elgin were playing all out defence so we had vary our play to break them down”.
“No hairdryers were involved”, he added with a grin.
“We played well within our limits and I think after we went four-up we lost our way a bit and weren’t going in for the kill”.
“After the break we started strongly, quickly scored and that set us up for a better performance throughout the half, albeit we only scored another two goals after Alex’s”, he added.
“The most important things to come from the game were, we kept our winning momentum, set ourselves up nicely for a huge game against St Andrew Paisley next weekend, and possibly the most important things at this time of the season, we didn’t pick up any more injuries or suspensions. It was a good day all in all”.
In the other matches, Paisley Pirates won 6-2 away to Winbat wonderers, St Andrew Paisley snapped their two-game losing streak with a 7-0 win at home to Oboy shot, and despite looking to offload half their squad Badger Loyal won 6-2 in Inverness.
Brook Street hit eight without reply when the sides met at the LJG earlier in the season.
The Morayshire side went bottom last week following their 5-1 defeat away to Oboy shot last weekend and now look a good bet to make an instant return to Division V.
That said, Fermín Romero has prepared his side no differently this week than he would for a game against a top side.
“We prepare the same way every week whether we’re playing the team at the top of the league or the bottom. Not to do so would not only in my mind be disrespectful and also lure the players into a sense of false security. I want them to go out and win every game and I want them to work for it”.
Turning to this afternoon’s game he said, “We rode our luck a bit last week and got a lucky break at the end, but it kept up our positive momentum”.
He continued, “It’s important that we keep that going this afternoon as we’ve got three massive games after this. We certainly won’t be treating Elgin lightly and will go with our strongest side”.
He added, “Raúl Colen misses out after picking up the injury last weekend, but he is the only absentee”.
As tradition dictates Fermín refused to name his line-up, but it would seem likely that after last weekend’s display, Alex Marker may get the nod at wing-back in Raúl Colen’s absence.
Kick-off at Elgin FC Arena is at 16:30.
Adam Doyle fires Brook Street on their way to a 7-0 win the last time the sides met.
“We are in excellent form at present and playing some terrific football”, said Fermín Romero this lunchtime. “We are back to full strength too with Charlie Benham and Alex Marker available following injury and Kari Kienberger free from suspension, so will be looking to put this game to bed as fast as possible”.
“We know they’ll try to ‘park the bus’. but we have more than enough ability to break them down”, he added.
Kick-off is at 16:30.
Gillis Jacob opens up the scoring for Brook Street last weekend.
Adding spice to the tie is the fact that a Brook Street win will take Fermín Romero’s side above the early season pace-setters for the first time this season. However the home side will be desperate to get their act together having slipped to three points behind Paisley Pirates with those sides meeting in Paisley next weekend.
“We had a very good win last week and we’ve been building on our recent good form”, said Fermín Romero this morning.
“We are looking for another win this afternoon that will see us continute to build momentum going into the run-in”, he added.
While pleased that his side are unbeaten in four games and looking to extend that run this afternoon, he admitted, “We are probably too far back for it to make any difference this season, but if we keep progressing it could make all the difference going into next season”.
Brook Street will however be without Kari Kienberger who sits out on a totting up suspension and Alex Marker who picked up a groin strain during Wednesday’s friendly match.
Kick-off at Smith Stadium is at 16:30.
Fermín Romero was less than impressed with his side’s second half showing this afternoon.
And it was certainly a disappointment for Athletic Coach Fermín Romero who was clearly frustrated by his side’s inability to mete out an even heavier defeat when he attended the post-match press conference.
“We were unstoppable in the first half and their goal only seemed to irritate my players into greater efforts”, said Fermín who quickly added. “It must have taken so much out of them that they needed a siesta in the second half”.
He continued, “We seemed to think that we had done enough in the first half and that our job was done. That was far from the case and it wasn’t until Inverness scored a second that we woke up again”.
“That’s nowhere near good enough. I want the first half performance in both halves, not just the first”, he added.
In a blistering start to the match, Brook Street were 2-0 up with only four minutes on the clock through Joe Anderson and Raúl Colen before Gilbert Conlon pulled a goal back for the visitors in the eighth minute.
Two Paul Hughes goals in the sixteenth and twentieth minutes had Brook Street 4-1 to the good before Charlie Benham rifled home the fifth goal.
Goalmouth action was at a premium after the break but Brook Street were awarded a penalty in the seventieth minute. With regular penalty taker Adam Doyle watching on from the stands, Alex Marker stepped into the breach and was perhaps too confident as he fired the kick high, wide and not so handsome.
With seven minutes to go, the visitors pulled a goal back when Gilbert Conlon grabbed his second goal of the game.
This finally kicked the game back into life with play racing from end to end, however it would be Brook Street who would find the net again when with three minutes to go, Kari Kienberger fired home.
Elsewhere, Badger Loyal continued their good start to the season with a 5-0 win at Oboy shot, Winbat defeated Elgin at home by the same score and Paisley Pirates won 3-2 at St Andrew.
Connor Hutton slams home Brook Street’s second decisive goal against Paisley Pirates this afternoon.
That the home side could not muster a single shot on target in the entire game may come as something of a real surprise given the calibre of their squad, but it emphasises exactly how much in control Brook Street had over the game. Indeed only some excellent goalkeeping from Pirates stopper Przemysław Lenard kept them in the game.
The Polish keeper denied both Kari Kienberger and Connor Hutton in quick succession in the first half and denied Hutton again in the sixty-fourth minute, ten minutes after Kalle Konkka had bounced a lob off the top of the crossbar.
This was only a short reprieve for the home side however as two minutes later Alex Marker swung over a corner that skipper Joe Anderson met square on the forehead to power the ball into the net to end Lenard’s one-man resistance.
Four minutes later Anderson was withdrawn in a pre-planned move with Paul Hughes coming on his place. Connor Hutton was handed the armband and two minutes later Connor Hutton finally got the better of Lenard to put Brook Street two-up.
There was to be no way back for the home side and Brook Street recorded their first win over them to make a good start to the new campaign.
It was a very pleased Fermín Romero who faced the press afterwards and when asked if he felt that his side were serious title contenders he replied, “To get out of this league you have to realistically win all your games, so in that respect we are currently one of four serious title contenders”.
“We have managed to win our first match against the side that has come down from Division III; potentially our toughest tie. We now need to keep winning but if we drop points from now on we will no longer be serious title contenders”.
“I have believed since I took this job that we have the players capable of getting out of this league. If they play as well as I know they can, they will win their next thirteen games and we will achieve that goal”.
Asked about his side’s performance today he said, “We controlled the game from start to finish. It says everything that we didn’t give them a single shot on goal”.
He added, “I don’t know if they got their tactics wrong or if they underestimated us, but I was surprised that we had such a comfortable win. I was expecting a much tougher game for sure, not that I’m complaining”.
He went on to say, “There were terrific performances out there today. We scored two excellent goals but at the end if the day it’s only three points. It’s a great foundation to build upon but it’s only a start”.
Elsewhere, Winbat were quick out of the traps again this season with a 5-0 win at home to Livilions, St Andrew Paisley came back from a goal down to defeat Badger Loyal 3-1 at home while Bonnybrig got a real fright at Underworld before finally defeating Eilean Donan 3-2.
Bogusz Cacek will almost certainly get more gametime this afternoon against Glasgow Athletic.
“I was looking to rotate the squad tomorrow and all three would have featured; two may well have started”, he said. “That idea went straight into the bin when it became clear that none of them would be available. It’s a big disappointment”, he added.
He went on, “The injuries to both Alex and Paul can both be put down to the conditions in part and it’s just one of those things, but Banin’s was caused by an attrocious challenge”.
“Fortunately they should all be ok for next weekend so we were lucky in that respect, but one injury was completely avoidable”.
On this afternoon’s game itself he said, “Glasgow are in a real relegation scrap and picked up their first points of the season last weekend, so obviously they’re going to be fired-up after that”.
He went on, “We on the other hand need to score goals and win big, just to make sure we go into the final game of the season with a better goal difference than Breakfast. I don’t need to spell it out that we will be going for goals tomorrow”.
As it stands Brook Street may now be little changed from the side that edged out Winbat wonderers last weekend. Bogusz Cacek is likely to get increased gametime while Jackie Underhill and Balázs Polyák will both be hoping to get the nod for places on the bench.
Kick-off this afternoon is at 16:30.
Diego Misuraca blasts the winning goal high into the net as the game enters stoppage time to set up a Fourth Round clash with Premiership side GETAFF A.
The home side had been forced into playing 4-4-2 given suspensions but had Diego Misuraca coming into midfield to give an additional attacking option.
The game was an even affair throughout and it was the visitors who had the first chance around a quarter of an hour in but Andrew Farquhar was unprepared for it and the chance was lost.
Mait Peterson was right on the ball in the twentieth minute however and swept the ball home at the back post after a through ball from Diego Misuraca.
Brook Street could have been two-up in the thirty-sixth minute but Róbert Ungvári couldn’t finish off Charlie Benham’s through ball. As is almost always the case, they were made to rue the missed opportunity minutes later when Robert Rodger fired home for the Division V side to level the scores.
The first half had been keenly contested and this continued into the second, however the younger players on both sides struggled as the half progressed and passes started to go astray.
Then with extra-time beckoning as the tie entered stoppage-time Brook Street struck the decisive blow. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Alex Marker launched a howitzer up the middle of the park in the direction of skipper Diego Misuraca. The Italian was ready for it and running onto the pass he let it bounce twice before lashing it high into the net.
With no time left for ABM to equalise it was a devastating blow to the Division V side who had matched their Division IV opponents throughout.
Fermín Romero was quick to acknowledge this at the post-match press conference saying, “ABM played a mix of youth and experience too and they cancelled out a lot of our attacks. They played extremely well an consider themselves very unlucky not to have at least taken the match into extra-time. In the end we undoubtedly got lucky, but Diego’s finish was top drawer; it takes skill to be able to do that.
So Brook Street will face a current Premiership side for the first time in what will be one of their biggest ever games. Tickets will go on sale tomorrow and it’s likely the match will be a sell-out.
This is Brook Street 