Pre-Season Friendly: Kick-Off 4pm - Raynes Park
vs
LONDON STUDY CENTRE (0) 2
GK: Don Allen
RB: Nick Drzymalski
LB: James Schwier
CB: Garth Warren
CB: Ross Hamilton
RM: Dave Curtis
LM: Tim Glenn
CM: Neil Dulake
CM: Paul Meaden
F: David Basnett
F: Mike Murray
Subs:
Alex Mills (Glenn, 45mins)
Danny Inglis (Dulake, 30mins)
Ryan Jenkins (Hamilton, 60mins)
Jonathan Ely (Curtis, 45mins)
Garth Warren
The Gaffer had decided to give Partizan a tough Pre-Season to test their ability to cope with the big boys who they hope to meet in 2004/05 and in the cup competitions with a friendly vs London Study Centre, last seasons Divison One winners.
Partizan had met them last season in the league losing both contests, the first a 6-2 drubbing with Partizan controversially losing the second 2-1 to hand LSC the League title amongst the biggest crowd of the season!! With Partizan donning their sparkling new all white with blue trim, PSS Enterprise sponsored kit for the first time, they hoped the hype would be lived up to on the field. Rolling subs had been permitted as it was only a friendly and with so many new faces arriving over the summer it was a perfect opportunity to see what they were made of!
Partizan handed debuts to Garth Warren, Dave Curtis & 'Baz' Basnett and they started out at a ferocious pace. Partizan had control of the game and the possession and were creating all the early chances, along with two penalty shouts turned down. Both Baz and Murray went close in the first half. Some beautiful one touch passing and quick play by Partizan threatened to break down LSC's stubborn defence and the pre-season training looked to be paying off!
A recurring training injury forced Dulake off after half an hour, to be replaced by new boy Danny Inglis who immediately liven things up even more and fired a couple of decent chances just over the bar. LSC reverted to their usual tactics to stop teams playing by chopping the oppostion down whenever possible. The half time ended with Partizan in the dominance and just needing the breakthrough to come.
H-T: 0-0.
Changes were made at half time with Glenn being replaced by Mills and Ely coming on for Curtis. Things had evened themselves up after half time and LSC started to get back into it, but with neither side looking to get a goal. Partizan's two touch football suddenly became long ball as tired legs and discommunication cam into play.
With the back four on the brink of collapsing, Dulake bought off 'The Rock', who subsequently puked up Saturday nights exploits much like Schwier had earlier last season, and replaced him with 'Jenka'! This seemed to steady the ship for the time being, but after a couple close offside calls, the back four was eventually broken and the LSC striker rounded 'The Don' to score the opener. 0-1.
Partizan tried with all their might to get the equalising goal and even with some more rolling substitutions, they couldn't get that piece of luck they so dearly needed. Things looked up when a back pass between LSC centre back and keeper resulted in a Partizan corner, which sparked off a blazing hispanic row amongst the two guilty parties and ended with a right hook to the keepers face! All hell broke lose and the Partizan and LSC players had to seperate the two. As it was meant to be played in a friendly manner, the referee deemed it not worthy of red card offences so allowed them both to stay on the field although had it been a league match we hope the ref would have seen sense and sent both from the field!
It looked like the match would end 0-1 as things got slightly heated with Garth venting his anger at the LSC fouls whenever he could and the red mist threatened to decend! The match was finally settled when LSC again beat the offside trap to score a second past a helpless Don. 0-2.
The match was a good learning curve for Partizan and with a bit more luck in the first half and a few more coolly taken chances, the result could have ended up going the other way. This will surely remind all involved the importance when the league eventually starts that the first goal is so important if Partizan are to live upto the favourites tag!! A not bad start to a hopefully successful season!