Match Day Two
Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Eliot Kennedy 6 – Paul Magee 0
Eliot laid down the gauntlet with his first appearance in the Spring League. In a game where everything he did turned to gold, he had Paul on the floor by half time with a four goal opening blitz. Poking holes in Paul’s defense, nearly every shot he took found its way past Paul’s traditional Subbuteo ‘keeper and into the back of the net.

Paul was much better in the second half and the play was much more even. He even got the ball in to the back of Eliot’s net after some excellent build up but an off-side player in the corner meant the goal wouldn’t stand. However, Eliot was still taking his chances, including one magic long distance shot late in the game to round out his six goal scoring spree.

Gordy Dudley 0 – Adrian Elmer 0

Gordy entered his début game nervously but soon found he was not out of his depth. Both players rushed some of their touches, leaving room for improvement. A tense first half saw Adrian create a couple of chances but his shooting let him down badly.

Adrian began to dominate more in the second half, creating a number of chances. The tension increased as the half progressed. Adrian’s good build up play, however, was cancelled out by a mixture of more poor finishing and some excellent goalkeeping reflexes from Gordy when the shots were on target.

Steve Dettre 0 – Paul Magee 0

Having had a game to forget in the early fixture, Paul backed up in the late game with a renewed determination, this time against Steve and his He-Man Bayern squad. There was no chance of the new smashing laws coming into play as Paul continually bounced off Steve’s figures, barely shifting them. Steve, however, did find his heavy figures were sliding inconsistently, resulting in some less accurate flicking than we’ve come to expect from the elder statesman of Australian table football.

Both players kept things tight throughout the match. A few half chances fell to either player but neither goalkeeper was called into serious action. As the game progressed, Steve committed more figures forward and put considerable pressure on Paul but this also gave more space for Paul to use on the counter attack and he created some of the half’s best chances. The tension came to its climax in the final 20 seconds. Steve built up well and put himself into a good goalscoring position, albeit with one of his figures in his own half. He hit the shot sweetly however, and a desperate save from Paul’s ‘keeper, knocking the ball onto the post and out for a flick-in was the final action of the game.

So, after two rounds, Eliot is looking to be the in form player while the others find their feet.