British United 1

🇬🇧 1-1 🇮🇪
FC Ireland earned a hard earned point against British United out in Mechelen this weekend. With half the squad out holidaying in Southern Europe, the lads had to dig particularly deep to get the result on a warm Saturday afternoon. This was to be another match where the Irish were left wondering how they could play so well and not come away with the three points. The story of their season so far, with the 2 points from 6 games a rather cruel reflection on the overall team performance.

Ireland dominated the first half, playing risk free at the back and plenty of incisive passing through the middle. The compactness of the team while defending left the British with few options; most of which were intercepted or over cooked through balls. It was the MOTM Brioche who broke the deadlock (he also may have also broken an opponent’s eye socket), with a deftly executed chip over the advancing keeper after a silky one-two with Julien. Top drawer stuff. British responded well and hit the inside of the Irish upright from inside the box, but Josh was able to collect the fortuitously angled deflection.

After talking about how important the first 5 minutes after the restart are during the half time talk, Ireland conceded 30 seconds into the second half. A pantomime of a goal, with some softly half tackles in the lead up, unfortunate ricochets, topped off by a worldy finish that sailed into the top corner from 25 yards out that left Josh with no chance. The reaction from Ireland was much better from that point, who kept organised and started looking dangerous. Massive shout out to Gerardo from the 4ths, who came on and ran his socks off in a high adrenaline 20 or so minutes to the close.

Both teams created some chances as the game opened up while looking for the knock-out blow in a more even sided half. Mister Ale got a block in on a stinging goal bound shot. Ionut carved up the defence on the left flank, cutting it back from the byline to Lolo who’s first time right footed hit didn’t find the target. In the dying minutes Julian latched on to a perfectly weighted through ball to go one-on-one with the British keeper only to be denied by some very handy keeping.

A fair enough result against the second placed side in the league, when all said and done. But given how well the lads in green played today, this one has been a bitter pill to swallow. While the 3 points continues to allude them, performances like this will no doubt end the drought.