MATCH REPORT

Weekly Roundup - October 17th & 18th

By Marion F Dent
Press Associates

Player of the Week Sean Kelly VMSL Division One

Despite the rain soaked conditions the surprising thing this weekend was that two of our seven teams actually managed to play league games thanks to some good fortune that scheduled both the Men’s Division One and Under 21 on Synthetic Turf Fields.

The men’s division one team kicked off the weekend’s activities with a Friday night game against local rivals Surrey Pegasus at Newton Athletic Park. It was a strange affair that became a virtual carbon copy of the Provincial Cup Semi-Final game between the same two clubs last season. United, in the end, ran out comfortable winners registered an emphatic 6-1 victory over Pegasus whose starting line-up included six premier starters. Pegasus, not surprisingly took the early game to United whose young players somehow weathered the storm and then grabbed their first goal of the game against the run of play when Ivan Estrada’s speed eased him past the two defenders before steering a low fifteen yard shot past the advancing keeper and into the corner of the net. Pegasus enjoyed the territorial advantage and forced a succession of corners and saw one header from one of those kicks somehow get deflected against the cross-bar and rebound to safety. During this period of constant pressure United looked dangerous on the counter attack and strangely could have had two more goals themselves when firstly Estrada and then Sean Kelly broke through the home team’s brittle back-line but they both fired their shots the wrong side of the upright. Ten minutes before the half United grabbed what proved to be the eventual winner when Ray Christensen pounced onto Kelly’s corner-kick and hammered the ball with the aid of a slight deflection over the keeper’s head and into the roof of the net. Pegasus grabbed themselves a life-line five minutes before the interval when they slotted home a fortuitously awarded penalty-kick.

In the second half United’s young players took full control of the game right from the re-start and increased their lead after ten minutes when great perseverance by Kelly saw him strip one defender of possession on the touch-line and then magically weaved his way past another along the goal-line before drawing the keeper and slotting the ball into the net. Ten minutes later Kelly rounded off a sweet flowing move involving Joseph Nakhla and Wyatt Seddon-Jonhstone whose inch perfect cross gave Kelly the simple task of steering home his shot from close range. Kelly proved to be a constant handful for Pegasus and he rounded off his natural hat trick at the seventieth minute when he latched onto a long through ball and volleyed home a twenty five yarder into the top corner of the net. Vinny Stewart rounded out the scoring when he raced onto a perfectly timed through ball from Reshad Etminan, rounded the advancing keeper and tucked the ball into the unguarded net.

The following day United’s high flying Under 21 team came crashing down to reality losing their first game of the season 2-0 away to Burnaby Canadians. With many of United’s starlets playing in the Friday Evening game it gave some of the squad a chance to show their stuff as United only dressed 12 players one of which was over age midfielder Rob Wilson who this week had to “don” the goalkeeping equipment due to injuries to United’s regular keepers. The game ended up becoming a monotonous affair with scrappy play from both teams who were primarily locked in a midfield battle. Goal-scoring chances were at a premium for both teams but the home team managed one in either half to grab the three points which they deserved based on the balance of play.

Sean Kelly’s three goal performance earned him 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.