MGBSFL DIVISION ONE
LOS BLANCOS 3 NORTH LONDON RAIDERS B 2
The Raiders backline had been troubled with the long ball throughout the first half when home goalkeeper Gideon Rabstein's long clearance was knocked into the path of Jamie Kutner who carried the ball and lobbed home from 30-yard.
Again, the long ball proved Raiders Achilles-heel when Raiders defence failed to deal with a ball from Gav Krieger, Oli Sade latched on to the bouncing ball and with Ben Law finding himself in no-man's land Sade did what he does, deliciously dinking the keeper.
David Dinkin pulled one back with on 50 minutes as Blancos failed to deal with a throw. Sade then channelled his inner Diego Maradona (vs England) and produced the moment of the match, picking up the ball on the half-way line dribbled around four players before slotting home coolly with his left foot.
Blancos’ resolute defence saw out the rest of this game comfortably, a late consolation goal against the run of play did nothing to dampen the spirits of Blancos stand-in player-manager Joel Barnett .
He told JC Sport: "The lads battled well today, we didn’t concede any chances from open play against a team apparently contesting for league.
"Credit to Raiders who tried to make it difficult with some tough challenges but we dug deep found fifth gear and comfortably won this tie.
"Huge mention to Oli Sade for his performance today and we wish Jake Doffman a speedy recovery from his injury against Oakwood last week. Jake always chases one ball too many tirelessly working for the Blancos cause and we hope to see him back soon as we are in the hat for MGBSFL Invitational Cup."
Disappointed Raiders joint-manager Doron Salmon told JC Sport: "We were our own worst enemies today. We gifted Los Blancos all three of their goals and put unnecessary pressure on ourselves.
"It would be remiss not to acknowledge that the goals still had to be finished and they were very well taken.
"There are only so many times we can rely on a second-half performance to fix our first half errors and today no matter what we tried we couldn't make anything click.
"It was a bad result and a bad performance. After a good run it halts our momentum but we'll be ready for a huge game next weekend against Faithfold."
BLANCOS: Gideon Rabstein, Josh Aziz, Joel Barnett, Joe Davis, Gabriel Krieger, Jamie Kutner, Alex Lewis, Joshua Michael Laurier, Alon Pinhas, Oliver Sade. Subs: Alex Deal, Joe Zender, Yoel Deal
SCORERS: Kutner, Sade 2
RAIDERS: Ben Law, Rob Blackman, Danny Bloom, Simon Buchler, Anthony Goodmaker, Elad Hertshten, Elliott Espinoza, Dave Esterkin, Ricky Lawrence, Jake Gilbert, David Dinkin
SCORERS: Dinkin, Goodmaker
