Goals from Henson and Amin hand Old Carey first win of season.

The Old Carey Soccer Club picked up their first points of the season in a dominant performance against the more fancied Caulfield Cobras this Saturday.  In what was a very warm day, Old Carey travelled to Victory Park hoping to build on  their promising second half performance from Round 1.  Few expected Old Carey to get much out of the game; even fewer would have expected them to win in the fashion they did.  OCSC put in a complete performance from start to finish and were fully deserving of their 3 points.

Alex De La Torre made a few changes to his squad for Saturday, all of them forced through either injury or suspension.  Along with the change in personnel came a slight change in system, which was to be expected after a somewhat disappointing first round loss.

After their slow start in round 1, OCSC would have surely been focussed on putting in a strong performance from the first whistle.  It showed.  Little more than 2 minutes had gone when OCSC managed to create their first half chance after some neat interplay between Stanner and Amin.  Old Carey controlled the tempo of the game during the first exchanges, as they forced Caulfield onto the back foot early.  However, OCSC again seemed to be struggling to create anything in the final third.

Amin, playing in a more advanced role than the previous week, was holding the ball up equisitely and brought his midfield more into the game.   Despite Old Carey’s early dominance, Caulfield had perhaps the better of the early chances, with a long range shot being comfortably held by Paton, a shot from out wide on the right flying only just over the bar, and a long ball from the keeper being won by their striker, only for his shot to be parried by Paton.  The Caulfield #9 was causing Old Carey a few worries up front, and De La Torre made the call to swap the marking assignments, with Pellew moving to the dangerous looking #9.

Caulfield, for all their supposed skilful players, had a direct style of play and continued to ask questions of the Old Carey defence by putting balls in behind.  After a slight adjustment, Old Carey comfortably dealt with the long ball threat.

In the meantime, Skalkos, Henson and MacDonald had wrestled control of the midfield and were exposing Caulfield’s lack of pace in the middle of the park.  Mariadason and Amin were continually linking up well together.  Mariadason had a good chance after being played in down the right and cutting inside onto his left, but saw his goal bound shot well saved by the Caulfield keeper.

Old Carey’s best chance of the half was yet to come however.  After good work from Udorovic down the right, Old Carey won a corner.  Udorovic drifted the corner in only to see Henson’s header cleared off the line.  After controlling much of the possession for the first half, Old Carey were somehow only level at the half.  The message from De La Torre was ‘more of the same’ and that ‘it’s only a half’ – a message which seemed to enstill more confidence into the players as, after the break, Old Carey continued where they left off.

After 54 minutes, Old Carey finally had something to show for all their hard work.  Udorovic again drifted a ball in from the right and, after a scramble in the 18-yard box, Henson was on hand to poke the ball home.  It was Old Carey’s first goal for the season and was just reward for their performance to date.

As to be expected however, Caulfield pushed hard for an equaliser and pushed another body up front.  They were now playing most of their balls through their #9, however he was expertly marshalled by Pellew and posed no threat to the Old Carey goal.  Caulfield should have perhaps been level after 60′ minutes, when a corner from the right was allowed to bounce in the box and was only half cleared to a Caulfield player who blazed ver while unmarked from only 10 yards out.  It was a warning for Old Carey, and they adjusted well and continuously got bodies behind the ball in order to frustrate any Caulfield attack.  Skalkos then made way for Mallios on 64′ as Old Carey looked to inject some fresh legs into the middle of the park.

The Old Carey bench was then made to sweat as keeper Paton was cleaned up after coming to punch from a free-kick out wide.  Paton, who had fisted the ball away, appeared to collect a knee into his thigh.  The game was stopped for 5 minutes as he received treatment.  Fortunately he was able to continue, especially when considering there was no ready-made replacement on the substitute bench.

As Caulfield continued to push bodies forward, they opened themselves up to the possibility of a counter-attack.  After 79′ minutes, Old Carey showed just how to expose a side who are pushing forward.  Mallios, through some good work on the edge of his 18 yard box, managed to get the ball wide to Stanner who cut inside and played in MacDonald.  MacDonald burst through the middle of the park and played a perfectly timed ball out wide to Udorovic who was able to hit his cross low and hard across the box where Amin, who had been a stand out all game, was there to tuck the ball away.  It was a free-flowing, exquisite goal and was no more than Old Carey deserved.

Mariadason then made way before Caulfield could kick-off for Matthews, before Constantine was brought on in the 86′ minute for Amin.

Old Carey continued to fight hard until the final whistle had blown, much to the delight of their travelling fans, coaching staff and players alike.  For the first time in 2010, Old Carey could sing their infamous “Carey Canaries” song, and will certainly be looking to build on this performance in the weeks ahead.