MP3rds 6 – 2 Melbourne Uni
The first home game of the season for the MPFC 3s was billed as a carnival type atmosphere (well there was plenty of clowns on show) and had a remarkable 11 players making their home debut.
Watched on by the WAGs (or the ones that could be bothered to show) and bringing some decent form into this one the Parkers where confident of a home victory against a competitive Melbourne Uni outfit that had proven from previous results that they would be no pushover.
The first 20 minutes was a tense affair for MPFC with Uni hardly setting foot out of their half. Dave Rayer did his best to break Mark Hoeys’ record as he tried everything in his Arsenal to try and beat Marks 20th minute red card but the ref was having none of it and refused to send him off for an early beer. The deadlock was finally broken by the robust centre forward Tom, winning the ball on the left and cutting inside to get a shot of in front of a closing centre-half and evading the grasp of sprawling keeper.
Shortly afterwards Brad got in on the act to make it 2-0 and the thirds were in complete control with the back four cleaning up without any issues and the midfield taking control of the game allowing the wide men and forwards to continually threaten the opposition goal, however, as we’ve seen in the past it can all change very quickly. A long Uni punt upfield beat the back four and was picked up by a Uni forward who lost control of the ball, however as it rolled out for a goal kick Rich decided to make things interesting and proceeded to hack down the opposition player resulting in a converted penalty and the game was evenly poised at 2-1.
A nervous final 15 of the half ensued until Squigsy squandered a great opportunity to put the game out of reach, with the ball floated to the back post by Cam the on running winger headed goal wards when suddenly a cruel gust (must have been a tornado) of wind denied him glory.
The second half started much the same as the first ended with both teams having spells of possession and control but it was a fine double save from Rich that proved to be the catalyst for MPFC to step up a gear and in a matter of minutes Tom then Brad got on the score sheet again. 4-1 and the Parkers were cruising.
Uni hit back with a well worked counter but it was all in vain as BFFs Dicko (loves a yellow) and Cam each added to the scoreline after some heated exchanges between the two which we can only put down to Scottish / Columbian language barriers (I have been informed that it gets easier to understand Dicko the more you get to know him).
With that the final whistle blown at 6-2. A great hard fought performance against strong opposition that were made to look very average in spells.
SQUAD:
1. Rich Gorrett.
2. Ben Cooksey.
3. Michael Morley.
4. Camilo Hernandez.
5. Tom Curran
6. Adam Bell.
7. Simon Tortorici.
8. Mark McGuigan
9. Dave Houghton.
10. Jarryd Wright
11. Darren Slade.
12. Chris Renouf
13. Brad Fletcher
14. David Rayner
15. Iain Dickson
16. Gavin Cremming
CARDS;
YC – Rayner, Dicko, Cooksey
Brad 2, Tom 2, Dicko 1 and Cam 1.
Report By Squigsy (heavily edited by Cooksey)