MATCH REPORT

Weekly Roundup - October 11th & 12th

By Marion F Dent
Press Associates

Player of the Week Martin Kelly VMSL Division Two

With both the women’s teams scheduled for the Thanksgiving weekend off and the men’s division one and premier teams games cancelled due to the Nationals we only had three teams playing. However, they all registered convincing victories to maintain their positions atop their respective divisions.

The Under 21 team entertained Club Ireland at Cloverdale Athletic Park and played some dazzling soccer in a display that saw them build up an invincible 3-0 lead by half-time. United’s opening goal came from a Sean Kelly corner-kick which Jackson Reeve headed back across the goal for fellow centre-back Ben Pisch to knock the ball into the “old onion bag”. Kelly helped himself to the second goal after some nice set-up play by 14year old Jacob Lenski. Kelly again became the set-up man on the next goal that Maarten Koorn slotted away. In the second half United continued with their dominating play and added further goals from Kelly and then young Lenski crowned a great display by helping himself to United’s final goal of the game. A momentary lapse in the United defence spoiled the shut-out bid for keeper Ian Malnis and provided Club Ireland with a token consolation.

The divison two mens team had a comfortable 5-0 away win against the lowly Elephant Walk Socceroos. United got off to a great start when in the first attack of the game Matt Orsono hammered home from close range a great cross from Martin Kelly. The goal probably came too easy for United who followed up their exciting start with a lethargic period of play for the defending champions before Kelly grabbed the insurance marker in the 43rd minute rounding off a breakout passing play between Josh Possey and Nick Gollogly. United had to wait until the 79th minute for the next goal when Kelly again pounced on a long clearance from United keeper Kevin Woronchuk to outpace the home side defenders and hammer the ball past the advancing keeper. The goal took the wind out of the sails of the Soccerooo resistance and United got two further goals in the remaining ten minutes. Dale Kahri scored on a feed from Avi Yakub to extend his goal-scoring streak to four consecutive games and midfield maestro Ezra Fenwick added the fifth to complete the scoring. Kevin Woronchuk recorded his second successive shut-out.

In Masters action United visited high-flying Peace Arch and emerged victorious in a tight 2-1 game. Surrey United had all the play in the first half but were only up by a goal at the interval. Man of the match was 47 years young midfielder Ian Farquhar who fired United into the lead with a shot that had a hint of a deflection from a Peace Arch defender. In the second half Peace Arch took the game to United and tied up the game in the 65th minute when their midfielder hot a laser of a shot into the bottom left corner of the net. The goal intensified the Peace Arch efforts but United’s experience stood them in good stead and after withstanding a solid period of pressure United broke out quickly and Mike Marini outpaced the defence to notch the game winning goal and increase United’s lead over Peace Arch at the top of the table. Martin Kelly’s two goal performance edged out his younger brother Sean for this week’s Player of the Week Award. Each Weekly Winner will have their name entered into a random draw for the month and will have a chance to win for Dinner for Two.