What a great night to be wearing a Wolves #8 shirt!
And again Paul Wade, stick that where it fits!
I talk about the crowd disruption when I get to half time.
For a few minutes I was enjoying the prospect of seeing the Spirit stars strut their stuff. But, thankfully for Wolves, they didn't. Most of them must be hanging their heads. Slater earned his money in the first half and I liked Langdon (although he came off in the second half). Enes had a fair bit of the ball. Marusic was mostly just a tackle target. The Spirit defence was such junk that Marusic was chasing back toward the end trying to show the defenders how to do their job. Wolves should have won by more. And Spirit have to wonder how they couldn't put more balls past a keeper who could hardly stand up for most of the game.
Spirit won the youth fixture 2-1. Griffiths and Mendez scored for Spirit and Younis scored for Wolves.
Slater had the first half-chance on the end of a cross from the right. And almost immediately Chipperfield created a chance for Masi at the other end. But Masi hadn't quite timed his run right. He was soon had another chance, firing wide to the right. Masi had a good game participating in the build-ups. But he was offside too often. And should have scored some. Chipperfield was a dream. Or a nightmare if your name was Rudan. Scotty took a pass from the classy Mr Surjan and returned it to his head for Wolves' first goal. And before we'd settled back in our seats Surj had whacked another in from 22 metres out, rising to the top left corner of the goal.
No Wolves fan would have been celebrating a two nil lead this early in the match (in fact, you wouldn't celebrate a two nil lead with 90 minutes gone; always likely to stuff up in injury time). And Spirit were by no means written off. They didn't look terribly scary, but they kept penetrating Wolves penalty area. Two minutes after Wolves' second goal and Slater was again chasing a ball into the Wolves area and tangling with Pogliacomi. Les came off second best and probably would have come off the pitch if Wolves had a reserve keeper on the bench. But they risked defending a keeper who couldn't run or kick and who fell to the ground most times he caught the ball. Mobile he weren't.
Slater kept receiving balls and taking them to the Wolves defence. Didn't seem to get a lot of support. Too little, too late mostly. Once he ran deep into red trouble and had Marusic behind to set up for a shot but he hit it over.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was Marusic who delivered the ball to Slater's head for Spirit's first goal. It was a gem. And Slater despatched it like the pro he is. And Slater was also good in response to the home crowd's ribbing when he stuffed up.
The crowd wasn't quite so amused when Surjan was brought down in the Spirit penalty area and the ref signalled to play on. It didn't matter in the end coz Surj got his hat trick anyway. And Masi and Chipperfield continued to blind Spirit with science and speed so it looked like more opportunities would come. Which they did. But Wolves didn't capitalise on them.
At the other end, Zane once found space enough to get to the line and put in a cross - which was cut out by Souris (Wolves' other hero). Casserly had a shot late in the first half that hit the side netting. Then there was a corner and a bit of work for Pogliacomi punching the ball away from a Bingley effort before a Spirit handball.
At the other end Surjan provided one for Masi who shot over the bar.
Half time.
Wolves' prematch and half time entertainment was eclipsed by Spirit's Yobborama. This wasn't interclub rivalry as far as I can make out. Just a little "overenthusiam" on the part of some Spirit fans. First resisting sense. And then resisting arrest. Actually, apart from encountering several chanting Spirit supporters playing chasings around our VIP car park, I was enjoying their presence. We thought they wouldn't travel. But they were plentiful and colourful and noisy. Made the food queues long half an hour before the main game started - outrageous. There was a pleasant buzz about the ground and the bulk of the Spirit fans set up on the northeastern bank alongside a very large banner. And sang. It seems it was from among said group that trouble arose. The kids reckoned they attracted attention because of a flare. But whoever did what at least had the decency to do it on the other side of the bank so we had no idea what the seedier elements of the visiting riff raff were up to. Just that whatever it was resulted in them attracting capsicum spray and a baton lashing. Some of the former apparently ended up doing more damage to one of the security staff. Hence the ambulances. I just heard someone's conspiracy theory on the radio that the police hate the idea that soccer will be successful so they are targeting the nice Northern Spirit fans so the resulting bad publicity will give the game a bad name. What happened, according to the theory, was that the police took to this chap with batons and capsicum spray just because the Spirit fans sang some rude words. Just for the record, a few weeks ago we had some supporters of another ethnic proclivity at Brandon Park. They had a big banner, too. They even threw flares onto the pitch. They were nabbed. It was a fair cop. All over and done with. No spraying. No whacking. Maybe if the cops had suspected the ethnic words the fans were singing were a might colourful they would have gone for a bit of rough stuff then, too?
Early in the second half Casserly downed a rampant Brooks. And Spencer was yellow carded for sliding through Marusic.
Surjan's third followed a good combo with Masi. Surj took eons to decide how best to slot it away. And soon he was finding Chipperfield with a long cross but Scotty couldn't make good a couple of half chances.
Eleven minutes into the second half Crook came on for Zane. Ten minutes later Cunico came on for Langdon. Then Pogliacomi did amazingly well to save a shot (from Slater?) but of course ended up on the ground where he could only look on in distress as Bingley ran onto a ball the Wolves players couldn't do Pogliacomi the favour of clearing. What would the end of a Wolves match be if it wasn't nail biting?
Just when Wolves seemed to have lost their sparkle Horsley hit the metalwork after a bit of a dazzle down the right. Chipperfield did the dazzle thing down the left but hit a defender with his shot. And 30 seconds later Masi hit the side netting.
That was an unfortunate miss for the squandering Masi. Half an hour into the second half and he was off for Karavatakis. Four minutes after that and Reid was replaced by Dimoski. Between those substitutions Souris saved miraculously from Slater off the line and Pogliacomi collected a long shot.
The most horrible, horrible miss was Karavatakis'. Chipperfield coming down the left made Rudan look like a gormless gnu and set little Stevie up for a chance to make the scoreline more like Wolves deserved. Aaaaaaaagh!
Langan had a few minutes on after Huxley was rested. (Langan mustn't have been watching the game. The whole grandstand groaned "noooooooo" when he passed the ball back to limping Les.)
Wolves mightn't be going anywhere grand this season but (let's forget Canberra, shall we) we've just beaten South Melbourne and Northern Spirit and put four past Adelaide City. Brisbane here were come!