SERIE B 6-a-side Week 5 Update
Summary of the action from Week 5 of NTU's Serie B 6-a-side competition
08/11/16
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Summary of the action from Week 21 in the LIGA 11-a-side competitions
For the second season running the Cup & Plate Finals acted as the end of season finale for the LIGA 11-A-Side competition, with both games this season being played on Clifton Campus's 3G Pitch.
The Plate Final pitted the LIGA C Champions FC Banterlona against the runners-up from the 2013 FinaL, LIGA A's BSOC All Stars. The first half of the match proved to me a highly even affair, with the majority of play being focused in the middle third of the pitch as both sides battled for supremacy. Due to this actual chances were at a premium, with both team's goalkeepers having only a couple of long range efforts to deal with, none of which saw either goal seriously threatened.
The second half provided more in the way of action. Ten minutes in All Stars forward Ishmail Ndlovu hit the bar with a powerful header from a Olly Fallows corner. However, the anticipated rise in the attempts on goals failed to materialise, in part due to what happened on the hour mark. With the ball popping about in midfield All Stars substitute Ross Bendall and Banterlona's top goalscorer Richy Frankland both went for a 50/50 ball. However, in doing so Frankland caught Bendall with a two-footed challenge which, though not mailicious, was reckless enough to see him shown the red card. Following this Banterlona restructured to shore up their defence against the inevitable rise in All Star pressure whilst looking to catch their opponents on the break. All Stars began to get the ball into the Banterlona area more regularly put were still failing to put the Banterlona goal under meaningful pressure, in large part due to the well organised Banterlona backline. With the clock ticking down towards Extra-Time Joe Corney, playing in a more advanced winger role for All Stars, put in a right footed cross from the left side of the penalty area. The overhit cross not only evaded the All Stars players in the penalty area, but also Banterlona's keeper who was only able to get fingertips to it, with the ball dropping just inside the far post and giving All Stars the lead. With only two minutes on the clock both teams looked to have run out of steam, leaving the score unchanged at the final whistle and handing BSOC All Stars the Plate title they missed out on last season.
Aftre the even and ultra competative Plate Final, the Cup Final provided a game that was entertaining for very different reasons. The two form sides from the LIGA's, LIGA A champions ACS FC and LIGA B champions Chaps Society, met with ACS looking to go one better after losing the final to History Society last season and Chaps Society looking to finish the season with their 100% winning record intact. Both teams started the game brightly creating chances at either end of the pitch, though neither side seriously troubled the oppositions goalkeeper. ACS made the breakthrough after twenty minutes as Sheriff Babatundi capitalised on a loose ball in the Chaps penalty area to slot home his fourteenth goal of the season. ACS then began to dominate the game, with Ayodeji Ikusemori's header from a corner which struck the crossbar being their standout effort. Coming into the final stages of the half Chaps Society looked to be re-establishing themselves only to see ACS forward Lesengo Motsumi race clear onto the end of a Babatundi through ball and slot calmly home to leave the score 2-0 at halftime.
Chaps knew that at 2-0 they were still very much in the game and would have come out for the second half looking to quickly get back into the game. However, they were quickly put on the back foot within two minutes of the kick off as Lesego was able to race clear of their backline for the second time in the game to extend ACS lead to 3-0.
Chaps top goalscorer Ben Pyle had sat out the first half due to a pre-existing ankle injury, but his introduction after half time seemed to give Chaps the goal threat they sorely needed. However, it was ACS who were able to add their fourth of the game as a speculative twenty yard effort by Babatundi squirmed past Dan Brown in the Chaps goal.
To their credit Chaps could easily have folded at this point but continued to try to play their way back into the game and got just reward as Robbie Wilcock was able to get away from his marker and slide his shot into the bottom corner.
Chaos continued to go close with Pyle striking the post and Wilcock, Jack Lodge and Raphael Kaye all going close. ACS continued to make chances for themselves though and Lesego was able to round the goalkeeper to complete his hattrick before ACS manager and sub Adnan Mohammad added a sixth with ten minutes to go.
These two goals proved to be a vital cushion for ACS as they were reduced to ten men just minutes later as Mohammad picked up his second yellow card in twenty minutes on the pitch for a second late tackle. Had the game been closer at his point Chaps may have been able to capitalise. With just ten minutes to go and a five goal deficit the was over by this point though. The final noteable point of the game was the sending off of Chaps defender Chris Baimbridge for bringing his player down on the edge of the area when he was the last man in the Chaps backline.
Despite the two sendings off and the scoreline the game was one of the most entertaining matches seen this season in the LIGA and ACS FC were worthy victors, completeing the League/Cup double and making amends for their defeat in the final last season.
Summary of the action from Week 5 of NTU's Serie B 6-a-side competition
08/11/16
Summary of the action from Week 4 of NTU's Serie B 6-a-side competition
07/11/16
Summary of the action from Week 19 of NTU's Bundesliga 5-A-Side competition
01/05/14