Sport

Glia double lifts Oak

November 10 - 16, 2010

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The Oak FC scraped past Royal Riffa 'Wee Monty' edging the side closer to glory in the highly-competitive GulfWeekly eight-a-side Expat League, writes Mai Al Khatib.

Two goals from Oak midfield dynamo Adil Glia steered the team to a 3-2 victory.

The match got off to a scrappy start with most of the shots in the opening exchanges coming from long range. Monty's Scott Lee then released a long range thunderbolt but Oak's defence, marshalled by Ed Daly, managed to it at bay.

Oak, however, were caught napping just before half-time following Scott's long range attempt and failed to clear the resulting rebound.

David McClelland reacted first to the loose ball to rifle home from eight yards out and give Royal Riffa a 1-0 lead going in at half time.

Oak manager Terry Churchill fired up his players during the interval with a 'hair-dryer' team talk.

The team immediately went close with star striker Derrick Rodney just firing wide after good play from substitute Mwariunesu Gamira (Nesu).

Oak started to pile pressure on the Monty's defence with Stuey Smith going close after a deflection. They finally got their reward after good play by Rodney and Smith which presented Glia an opportunity to finish into the bottom corner to level 1-1.

The intensity increased with both sides looking to gain advantage and testing all the professional skills of the referee, who once again turned in a balanced performance. Monty's striker Scott, a constant thorn in the Oak's defence, was rewarded with a brilliant individual effort giving his side a 2-1 lead.

Oak dug deep and Nesu, an inspiration since his arrival off the bench, again did well to put the ball across the box. The resulting scramble fell to Smith who fired home to make it 2-2.

Oak keeper Sean Cooper, returning from a broken wrist, made a tremendous save in the dying minutes as both teams fought hard to secure all three points. Cooper then launched a long ball to Smith, who laid a pass for Glia to score from just outside the box.

Churchill said after the game: "The Royal Riffa were a constant threat up front tonight and battled for every ball. However, our boys showed real character to come back from 2-1 down to take all three points."

Bayer Neverlusen then took on the British Club in a 'very easy' game, as described by Bayer's captain Tim Gillet.

They scored two early goals. Tom Herrity notched one after a defence-splitting ball from Chris Tricker, who scored the second soon after. A third goal was gifted to Bayer by the Club's Andrew 'cheeky' Crellin.

Bayer made changes in the second half and it paid off with Tricker scoring a fourth goal. Gillet added: "The whole team was playing great football and they were thriving with confidence."

British Club managed to pull one back through Shane Strauss after some good link-up play up front.

Meanwhile, St Christopher's School's battle against league leaders, the Saar Eagles, turned into a nine-goal thriller with the latter securing a 5-4 victory after St Chris went into the break 3-2 ahead.

James McCrystal, Dan Niemeyer (2), Lewis Marr and Chris Mason scored for the Eagles, while Richard Dixon Clarke (3) and Mark Holness were on target for the school team.

Tthe Dilmun Club were happy bunnies too as the early season strugglers notched their second win against Arabian Celts with an impressive 5-1 scoreline.

Within the first five minutes, the Celts Steve Noonen scored an own goal and it was all down hill from there. Dilmun captain David Lord had put one in the net, Mark Evans scored two and Craig Guire grabbed the final goal. Tim Backhouse scored for the Celts.

On Monday night supporters cheered on the much anticipated fixture between league toppers Saar Eagles and Bayer Neverlusen, followed by the Dilmun Club playing Oak FC.

Tonight the Royal Riffa 'Wee Monty' will face St Christopher's School and the Arabian Celts take on the British Club at the British School of Bahrain pitches in Hamala.

Spotlight on Saar Eagles

Andy Axon, left back

Chris Lynch, centre forward

Dan Niemeyer, midfielder

Gary McLean, midfielder

Ian Hendy, defender

James McCrystal, striker

Lewis Marr, midfielder,

Mickie Dismore, defender

Paul Geddes, striker

Sam Awadh, midfielder

Tarik Moustahib, midfielder