Soho crashed out of the City Leauge Cup a the Quarter Final stage last night after a controversial penalty shootout

 

With quite a few people running the provisional starting 11 was torn up and we went with 4:4:1:1 Bertie (GK), Stef, Henry, Flabbo, TonyC, Jens, Rob, Povey, Knowsley, Sergio, Forlan.

We started brightly with a long pass from knowsley down the right picked up by Forlan who tested the keeper with a long range shot, 10 mins in Jens down the left put a teasing cross that evaded the defence and found it’s way to Knowsley on the edge of the box to power home a low volley 1-nil and the opposition looked rattled and Rob followed up with another long range volley shortly after.

The game ebbed and flowed for much of the half, we were quick on the counter with nice passing football althohg our midfield had their work cut out whenever we lost the ball from a midfield packed with DIY players. A quick break after repealing a DIY attack saw most of our players bursting forward, Jens lost the ball on the right and some tired legs started to show as noone tracked back, withitn seconds DIY were outside our box with little defensive cover to level the score 1-1.

25 mins in the first sub with debutant Sergio who had been holding and distributing the ball well from behind Forlan off and Hemod on.

DavidP dribbed round a few players before being cynically broguth down just outside the box, the resultant free kick inches over the bar. A few more changes for Forlan and we came into half tme level.

10 mins into the second half Bertie did a very short goal kick and came off his line their striker intercepted the ball and lucky for us his delightful chip went wide. Second change of the match with Knowsley off for Scott to give some fresh legs down the right.

The match continued with end to end action and some great interplay from the Spartans, DIY didn’t make much use of the width of the pitch which allowed us to work the wings well with Rob& DavidP putting a ton of pressure down the left with Jens. A couple more change with David off for Jeff and Forlan off for Joe for the final 10 mins.

Fresh legs made the difference as we spent a lot of time in the final 1/3 of the pitch a few counter attacks from DIY however we looked more likely to score. A corner won and Henry thought he had scored on the line only for their keeper to somehow change direction in the air and deflect the ball away.

In the dying moments Rob worked his way to the corner flag before delivering a perfect pass to Joe’s head in the box which went narrowly over with the keeper beaten. Jens then dribbled though 3 players before unleashing a shot from the Chi school of football, Jens was off celebrating as the ball curled around the keeper and dipped towards the goal only to somehow clip the corner and bounce back, Scott following tried to volley in but went wide.

Blowing up 2 mins early with no extra time for substitutions and lost injuring time for their bleeding player left DIY probably feeling lucky then had made it to penalties.

First up Hemod who did what must be a Norwegian tribal dance as he shimmied from side to side up to the ball only to see his penalty saved. X
Bertie as ever a presence on the line pulled off a save only for their opposition keeper to moan "he moved his legs" and convinced the ref to get it retaken. No save the second time. 0
The ever dependable Flabbo slotted in our first sending the keeper the wrong way 0
DIY 0
Rob had his saved X
DIY X as Bertie pulled one back for us
Jens X
DIY 0

And out we went 4:3 🙁

Bitterly disappointing and even being an England fan it’s still a bummer to go out like this. That said everyone gave it their all on the pitch. A back four well that must be up to 150 year old (how old is TonyC) all had a commanding performance leaving Bertie with a lot less work to do than usual for Soho, across the middle everyone ran tirelessly and there were some silky skills on show. DIY had only conceded 1 goal in 15 games and we double that to 2…..Apologies to the unused subs (Cowley/Hao/Ed) but at 1-1 it was too close to call plus the ref blew up early.

Our first season in the A League saw us exit the cup at the quarter final stages and now we’re in the final, so let’s come back next year and win the City League Cup.

Next match Sunday 20th March 4:30pm Aberdeen – we have 7 league games left, we highly unlikely to get promoted so let’s just enjoy the rest of the season, priorities for the Soho/nites squad should now turn to keeping us in the 1st Division of the A League – after last night’s narrow loss we are hovering precariously above the relegation zone with 8 games to go.  

I filed a complaint with the league about the performance of the referee in ordering the retaking of the 2nd penalty but nothing will change …..