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Falkland skipper Ugo Maria Chiari yet again gets the better of Brook Street’s Charlie Benham,
Going into the match Brook Street were sitting top of the league, flying and everything seemed to be going their way. Falkland on the other hand were coming in on the back of a shock 1-0 defeat at Long Shot, a game which had seen former San Marino international Aldo Segapeli dropped following a period of poor form.
Segapeli was restored to the Falkland line-up for this afternoon’s game while Brook Street were boosted by the surprise return of Kari Kienberger who was given the all clear to play this morning.
Brook Street knew they’d be in for a tough game either way, but facing a side who were hurting following a poor showing last weekend was always going to raise the stakes. That Brook Street’s players chose this afternoon to go missing in action themselves was however wholly unexpected.
Brook Street were put under severe pressure right from the first whistle with Falkland firmly on the front foot.
Falkland skipper Ugo Maria Chiari was giving Charlie Benham and Raúl Colen a torrid time down Brook Street’s left flank and it was from one of his crosses that the home side took the lead in the fourteenth minute when Dan Ionaşc volleyed home.
It was one-way traffic and poor finishing had kept the score at 1-0 until six minutes from the break when another Chiari cross was met by the forehead of Anthony Themdale and the ball ended up in the net.
Things would not get any easier for Joe Andersons side after the break and a combination of poor finishing, woodwork and the occasional intervention from Jeremías Marchena kept the deficit at two goals until the seventy-fourth minute when Brook Street’s midfield and defence were torn apart leaving Aldo Segapeli one-on-one with Marchena.
It looked like the Sammarinese midfielder had miss-hit his shot however it had enough on it to take it beyond the fingertips of Jeremías Marchena and into the net to put the home side three-up and out of sight.
Indeed, but for a superb Jeremías Marchena tip round the post eleven minutes from time, it could easily have been 4-0.
It was a miserable performance and Joe Anderson didn’t hold back at the post-match press conference.
“We’ve taken exactly what we deserved from that game. We had zero threat going forward, we made zero chances, we had zero shots on goal and we’re taking zero points home”, he ranted.
“We were shockingly poor today and I am utterly dumbfounded as to why so many players were totally off the boil at the same time”, he added.
“We never laid a glove on them and just didn’t get going. Falkland wanted the win and to be honest, they probably got it without having to get out of second gear. Nowhere near good enough from us”.
For his part, Falkland coach Grant Rough said, “Today we knew we were facing a top opponent playing well. We had to be at the races and we did our jobs well today”.
“The opponent didn’t seem to turn up today but they have obvious quality all over the park and the return fixture will be harder than at Long Shot” said the understandably delighted coach.
Elsewhere, Wick Academy ran out 6-0 winners at Danny’s American, Balvenie United came from behind to defeat Long Shots 2-1 at home, while Desired Opponent edged out Athletico Machrie by the odd goal in five.
Despite his best efforts, Inverness keeper Ali Ballantyne can’t get back across his goal to deny Joe Anderson his 14th goal of the season.
“Yes it’s tedious and I’m sick of always being second best”, admitted Fermín when the news broke. “Hopefully they won’t mess up the play-off this time and we’ll get a new team in. It just enforces exactly why you have to win all of your games in this league”.
He continued, “We’ve got the foundation of a really good side in place here and if everyone plays to their potential, we will have a side capable of finally getting out of this division.
Turning to this afternoon’s match he said, “We got goals early on and that set the tone of the game. Three in each half is a good return and what is more pleasing is that they came from all areas of the park”.
He continued, “We played at a high intensity and our passing and build up play were both excellent”.
“Needless to say, our finishing wasn’t too bad either”, he added with a smile.
Aldo Pellone got the ball rolling in the sixth minute when a reverse pass caught the home defenders out leaving him free to drive the ball low into the net.
Five minutes later Adam Doyle swung over a free-kick that was headed on at the near post by Paul Hughes. Expecting him to go for goal took the home defence on the hop leaving Joe Anderson free to roll the ball into the net at the back post.
With only twenty-two minutes played Brook Street went three-up when Diego Misuraca pounced on a short backpass and fired high past Ali Ballantyne in the Inverness goal.
Ballantyne however saved his side from going further behind just after the half-hour mark when he got his fingertips to a powerful Aldo Pellone drive which looked netbound all the way.
Twelve minutes into the second half the Inverness keeper was left horribly exposed when his central defenders were posted missing, allowing Paul Hughes a free run through on goal before unleashing a real thunderbolt of a shot that gave the keeper no chance whatsoever.
A minute later Brook Street looked to have messed up a free kick routine when it landed at the edge of the box, but no-one had noticed Raúl Colen edging into position and he blasted the ball home to put Brook Street five-up and out of sight.
Raúl went close to adding a sixth goal in the sixty-fourth minute but his diving header was turned round the post by Ali Ballantyne at full stretch.
That sixth goal would come however Brook Street fans had to wait until a minute from time when a superb through ball played in Kari Kienberger who made no mistake.
And with that, some of the outstanding issues in the league were decided. Paisley Pirates 4-0 win over St Andrew Paisley ensured the title would remain in Paisley for a second season and that Brook Street Athletic will finish second. At the other end of the table Elgin were relegated after only a season in the fourth tier, however the final automatic relegation place along with the relegation play-off places are not quite yet decided.
Oboy shot are favourites to go down trailing Inverness by only three points but a vastly inferior goal difference, and with the sides meeting next weekend , it would take a 9-0 Oboy win to send Inverness down and Oboy into the play-offs. The other play-off place is a straight fight between Winbat wonderers and St Andrew Paisley. Winbat have the harder finish as they are at home to Badger Loyal while St Andrew Paisley are at home to Elgin. Time will tell.
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.
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.
Charlie Benham finishes off a counter-attack with Brook Street’s opening goal this afternoon.
Brook Street had been forced onto the back foot straight from the kick-off and suffered a significant setback when Raúl Colen was forced from the game with a rib injury after only twenty-five minutes.
The home side continued to press for the opener but Fermín Romero’s men held firm and got to the break with the game still tied at 0-0 thanks largely to the efforts of Jeremías Marchena.
The second half kicked-off in a similar manner to the first with all the play heading towards Brook Street’s goal and eight minutes after the re-start they survived a strong penalty claim when wonderers’ Festus Koech went down under a challenge from Jeremías Marchena. The referee however waved play-on.
Marchena played the ball out but a pass was intercepted in midfield and wonderers pressed forward again. Brook Street’s defence again held firm and when the ball broke to Alex Marker he had already spotted Charlie Benham in the clear ahead of him.
It was route one stuff, but the ball landed in front of the winger who raced through on the counter-attack and fired it low past the onrushing Robbie Archdeacon in the wonderers goal. It was Brook Street’s first attempt on goal and totally against the run of play, but the Monifieth side had their noses in front.
The question was, would them manage to stay in front for the remainder of the game?
The home side continued to pummel the Brook Street back line without any luck and as the clock ticked on they became more and more desperate.
With sixty-six minutes on the clock Garth Weakley crashed to the turf in the Brook Street box looking for the penalty, but despite being mobbed by Winbat players, the referee held firm in his view that Weakley had gone down far too easily and point-blank refused to give the spot-kick.
The wonderers’ player was perhaps a little fortunate that the man in the middle didn’t see fit to book him for simulation but instead a simple, “Get up son, you’re better than that” was deemed to be enough.
Play became scrappy as the clock ran down and it looked more and more as if Brook Street would see out the game with their lead intact.
However with a minute of regular time and another of stoppage time remaining the game turned completely.
Charlie Barr picked up the ball in midfield and raced forward. Kari Kienberger dropped back as the wonderers midfielder advanced and but when he went in for the challenge Barr back-heeled the ball to Garth Chalmers while continuing his run forward.
Kari went to close down Chalmers but this left Charlie Barr in acres of space and a deft pass had him played right through. Bearing down on goal he took a couple of touches before firing the ball under Jeremías Marchena to tie the game.
The crowd went wild and to be fair the goal on the basis of how many chances they had had was probably deserved. However fate had other ideas.
The ball had been played forward from the restart as Brook Street set about keeping it as far from their goal as possible. It found its way all the way back to Robbie Archdeacon who set up to clear upfield, but in a freak set of events he miskicked and the ball rebounded off Barry Glasser’s foot and bounced into the net.
The stadium fell silent in disbelief until the Brook Street fans realised the ball was in the net and as the final whistle went, their side had completed the perfect smash and grab win.
Speaking at full-time, even Fermín Romero was struggling to comprehend what he’d just witnessed.
“Normally I’d say I don’t care how we score, even if it bounces off someone’s backside, but in all my career I have never seen a goal like that”.
“Would I say that our win was undeserved? Absolutely! Does it bother me? Not in the slightest”.
He continued, “We’ve had plenty of our own kicks in the guts down the seasons so it was good to get a rub of the green for a change”.
“To be honest, when they got the equaliser with a minute to go i thought, ‘well that’s just typical, we’ve dropped two points in the final minute’, and with it we had to look more towards holding on for the point. Then”, he added, “that happened”.
Asked about Raúl Colen’s condition he replied, “It’s not great and he could be out for a few games. He may have bruised or even cracked a couple of ribs so we’ll just have to see how the scans look”.
“Alex [Marker] came in and played well at wing back despite it not being his best position. He linked up well and played the ball that Charlie Benham put us ahead from. He has come in under unfortunate circumstances and taken his chance to impress”.
He went on, “We now have strength in depth at the Club and this is a good example of it. We are building solid foundations and we can grind out results when needed. We are building a side fit to challenge for the title”.
Raúl Colen slams home the first of his two goals at Smith Stadium this afternoon.
Brook Street were 3-0 up at the break and in complete control of the game through goals from Adam Doyle, Raúl Colen and Joe Anderson, but it hadn’t all been good news for Fermín Romero’s side as Charlie Benham had been forced out of the game after twenty minutes having winded himself.
Joe Anderson went close and was only denied by the fingertips of Jorge Silva in the Gers goal with sixty-seventh minutes played, but this was only a stay of execution for the home side and just eleven minutes later Raúl Colen latched onto a through ball and buried it into the net.
With “Can we play you every week?” ringing out from the away section, many of the home ranks decided it was time to head home with the game clearly lost.
Two minutes later they were joined by even more home fans after Gers went down to tem men when Johnny Rollinson received his second yellow card and his ticket out of the game.
However with seven minutes to go the home fans who had remained in the stands at least had something to cheer when Kaniet Jenish Uulu swept through the middle on a counterattack before slotting home a consolation goal for the home side.
“We set about our task with confidence, the confidence of a side playing well”, said Fermín Romero afterwards. “The lads are annoyed that they conceded late on but we had more possession, more shots and more goals; a good afternoon all round and we’re now up to third place”.
Asked about Charlie Benham’s contition he replied, “Charlie was just winded. We weren’t sure if it was something more serious so he was taken off as a precaution. He’ll be fine for next week”.
As the Brook Street Coach said, his side are now up into third place in the league, two points behind St Andrew Paisley and five behind Paisley Pirates following today’s matches. In those other matches it proved to be a good day for the away teams , all of which went home with the spoils; St Andrew thumping Inverness 6-0 in the Highland Capital, Winbat headed south with the points following a 5-1 win at Oboy shot, while Pirates recorded the biggest win of the day, a comprehensive dismantling of Elgin by nine goals to nil.
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.
After less than thirty seconds on the pitch, Balázs Polyák fires Brook Street into a 3-0 lead.
Gers’ new £1.5M signing Johnny Rollinson made his debut and it was clear that they would be focussing their attacks on the wings. However, Brook Street were far too disciplined to be pulled out of position and it quickly became clear that there would be no repeat of Gers’ shock win of last weekend.
With six minutes played the ball broke to Raúl Colen at the edge of the Gers box. The Brook Street wing-back was quickly surrounded in an attempt to close down the move, but with quick feet he evaded all the challenges and broke through before firing the ball across the keeper and into the far corner of the net.
Brook Street were turning the screw and gaining control of the match, and this became even more evident in the twenty-first minute when Kalle Konkka picked up the ball in midfield and steamrollered his way through the Gers defence before thundering the ball high into the net.
The visitors kept trying to break through without any joy and in one such tussle in midfield in the thirty-fifth minute, Paul Hughes fell awkwardly and injured his collarbone. The game was over for him and he was replaced by Balázs Polyák.
Straight from the restart, the ball was fed through to the young Hungarian who proceeded to dribble the ball through the Gers defence before slamming it past keeper Vicente Olivos to sensationally put Brook Street three-up less than thirty seconds after he had come on.
Gers came out for the second half looking to put pressure on the home side and while Brook Street were happy to surrender possession, they ruthlessly snuffed out any attemps to break forward.
With time running out Gers became more and more desperate to claw themselves back into the game, and while they managed to create a couple of chances, poor finishing saw them slide away.
Brook Street had soaked up a lot of pressure and Gers were getting closer to scoring so Fermín Romero ordered his players to push up the pitch as full-time approached.
With just over a minute of regular time to go, the home players camped around the visitors’ eighteen-yard box looking for an opening until eventually Kari Kienberger lost his marker. He received the ball thanks to a superb pass by Janko Fila and took a touch before sweeping the ball into the net to complete the scoring.
“That was an important three points and four goals”, said Fermín Romero afterwards. “After last weekend it was essential that we got three points today. We couldn’t afford any more slip-ups and it’s a relief to get this fixture out of the way”.
He continued, “We can go to Eilean Donan next Saturday looking for goals and set us up for the final match against Paisley Pirates at the LJG the following week”.
Asked about the injury sustained by Paul Hughes he replied, “He’s injured his collarbone and might miss next weekend. We’ll just have to see how it responds. You can’t rush these things in case you do more damage, but I’d be surprised if he wasn’t available for the Paisley game”.
Elsewhere, Livilions gave themselves an outside chance of avoiding automatic relegation with a 3-2 home win over Eilean Donan while failure to convert chances did for Winbat wonderers who lost out 1-2 at home to St Andrew Paisley. Finally, it was a case of ‘What if?’ at Ochilview as with ten minutes to go Bonnybrig Eagles were 2-1 in front against Paisley Pirates. Had it stayed the same, Brook Street would have headed to the Highlands next weekend knowing that a point would be enough to secure the title. Alas it was not to be as two goals for Pirates in the remaining time saw that dream evaporate. To the final week it goes…
Connor Hutton blasts Brook Street into the lead with his fifth goal of the season.
Brook Street suffered an early setback when Kalle Konkka was forced out of the game with a foot injury after only seventeen minutes to be replaced by Janko Fila.
However the home side didn’t have their troubles to seek in the thirty-fourth minute when they lost keeper Jake Furness with an apparent wrist injury. Keiran Strutt came on to replace him, but the reserve keeper’s first involvement in the game was to pick the ball out of his net following Connor Hutton’s strike.
So Brook Street went into the break with a slender lead, but within four minutes of the re-start they had added another two goals through Joe Anderson and Raúl Colen.
Diego Misuraca added a fourth right on the hour and within sixty seconds Joe Anderson had added his second goal of the game to put Brook Street well in the driving seat.
Brook Street eased off at this point with the game won and being well aware that they were already looking at being a man down for next week’s game and with several players were sitting on two yellow cards and none could afford another.
However just as the game entered stoppage time Brook Street were awarded a penalty which Adam Doyle duly dispatched to wrap up the scoring and give Brook Street another valuable 6-0 win.
“We were a bit off form today, at least in the first half”, admitted Fermín Romero post-match, “but we knew the goals would come”.
“We just told the players to stick to the gameplan and we would score. Fortunately we got two quick goals early in the second half and killed the game off with half and hour to go with the another two quick goals”.
“By the time we got the penalty we were really just going through the motions with time almost up”.
Asked about Kalle Konkka’s condition he replied, “He hurt his foot and we took him off as a precaution. Our medical people are keeping a close watch on it, but Kalle has to get his foot up for the next twenty-four hours minimum. They’ll assess it again tomorrow but initially and a worst case scenario they’re saying he’ll be out for a week”.
Elsewhere in a day of high scores, Bonnybrig fought back from two-down to defeat St Andrew 6-2, Winbat romped to a comfortable 6-1 win over Badger Loyal and Eilean Donan could be relegated as early as next weekend following their 8-0 home thumping by Paisley Pirates.
Raúl Colen slams the ball past Gianluca Spada in the Eagles goal to net the first of his two goals.
The home side brought in Connor Hutton and new signing Remmel Demarsin for the suspended duo and it was Connor who opened the scoring in the eighth minute to a roar of deafening proportions from the Brook Street fans. This was clearly a release of tension after the visitors had made a bright start.
Twenty-four minutes in and debutante Remmel Demarsin found himself unexpectedly through one on onw with the keeper and that probably contributed to him snatching the shot which the Eagles’ keeper saved well.
It was a game of few chances so Connor Hutton must have rued firing straight at Gianluca Spada just after the half-hour mark and with it the last clear-cut opportunity of the half.
While happy to surrender possession to the visitors in their own half, Brook Street were asserting their dominance as the game entered the second half, and this bore fruit in the fifty-seventh minute when Raúl Colen broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake before slamming the ball into the net.
Brook Street were going all out to finish the game there and then and two minutes later Gianluca Spada kept his side in the game unbelievably tipping Paul Hughes’s swerving shot round the post.
However with just less than half an hour remaining Raúl Colen dodged numerous challenges before thundering the ball into the net to secure the points and kill off any possible come-back from the visitors.
The points were in the bag and with it Brook Street were in a commanding position six points ahead with five games remaining.
Afterwards Brook Street coach Fermín Romero while delighted with the win was playing down its importance.
“There are fifteen points to play for and we only have a six point lead. All that is certain at this time is that we can’t get relegated. While very unlikely we could still end up in a relegation play-off”.
He continued, “All that said, this was a superb performance by the players and they got the win their hard work deserved. There were many excellent preformances but for me those of Connor [Hutton], Raúl [Colen] and Remmel [Demarsin] need further mention. Connor leads the line extremely well and does so much work off the ball that sometimes goes un-noticed; Raúl is growing into a tremendous player and is a great finisher as he showed again today; and Remmel did remarkably well for someone who had only met his colleagues fir the first time two days ago. That said, the whole team should be proud of their efforts”.
Elsewhere, Eagles’ defeat was capitalised upon by Paisley Pirates whose 4-0 home win over Winbat saw them move into second place on goal difference; St Andrew Paisley kept themselves clear of the relegation play-offs with a 9-1 humiliation of Eilean Donan and Badger Loyal eased themselves further towards safety with a 6-1 defeat of Livilions at Smith Stadium.
This is Brook Street 