Photos (Top to Bottom): New Town Eagles' Alex Gordon (right) controls the ball as Metro's Adam Woodward moves in; Metro's German midfielder Lars Engisch; Metro coach Matthew Rhodes watches his side warming up; Metro's 10 outfield players warm up; Referee Ivan Jozeljic talks to the New Town Eagles players before the game; Eagles striker Adam McKeown lies injured; Eagles coach George Krambousanos treats McKeown before he went to hospital; Eagles' Adam Bates heads at goal; Eagles' Mark Page (left) chasing a Metro opponent; Eagles' Alex Gordon in possession; metro's Aaron Marney puts his side ahead; Eagles defender Adam Bates with a clearing header [PlessPix]
Division One side Metro gave Premier League outfit New Town Eagles a real scare in their friendly match at North Chigwell this evening.
The young, fast and exuberant Metro side raced to a 3-0 lead after just 25 minutes.
But, Eagles recovered and salvaged a 3-3 draw.
Trailing 3-2 at the interval, Eagles put out largely a reserve side for the second half but still managed to grab an equaliser and save face.
The friendly match came at some cost to Eagles, who lost striker Adam McKeown early in the game with a head injury after a collision. He did not take any further part in the match and went to hospital for treatment.
Seventeen-year-old German exchange student, Lars Engisch, played very well for Metro. The right-footed midfielder showed a high work-rate and excellent vision and technical skills.
Metro have been waiting for weeks for his international clearance and coach matthew Rhodes hopes he will be able to play in the Summer Cup.
Aaron Marney gave Metro the lead after 7 minutes when he gained possession just outside the box and fired past the unprotected Nathan Pitchford.
It was 2-0 on the quarter-hour through Daniel Brown, who took his chance well against an uncertain and hesitant Eagles defence.
When Danny Cowen made it 3-0 in the 25th minute, it looked curtains for Eagles.
But, an excellent goal by Mark Page two minutes later put the visitors back into the match. Alex Gordon, looking fitter than ever and as skilful as old, broke free on the right and delivered a low cross into the middle for Page to score with a first-time shot on the turn.
A minute before the break, Gordon won a free-kick 25 metres from goal. He lofted the free-kick into the box where Jacob Clamp gained possession in a goalmouth scrimmage and beat keeper Alex Dand from close range to make it one goal the difference.
Eagles brought on many of their reserve side for the second half and Alex Ayers drew them level with a goal after just 5 minutes of the resumption.
Both sides had further chances but had to settle for a 3-3 draw in the end.
Eagles meet South Hobart on Sunday at Wellesley Park (reserves 11am, seniors 1pm) in another friendly, while Metro host Olympia Warriors at North Chigwell the same day in another practice match.
32 comments:
another topic....should we all pitch in and get a cheap time machine for walter and send him back to say, pre season 1982
C'mon Metz promotion 2011
eagles will wanna pick up the fitness. or it will be div one for them next year.
metros senior team was looking to run out of steam at half time. and probaly would of lost if it wasnt for a full reserves squad coming on
eagles senior team** my mistake
Eagles...... hahahaha more like seagulls.....
What a disgrace the ground was that the teams had to play on. Eagles to tackle south this Sunday at Wellesley and should be a closer game than people think on a decent surface
haha crying because of the ground??
it wasnt even that bad. better than that crap clare st.
eagle.. get close with south?. if they couldnt beat metro. how the hell do they think they will get close to south
cute little sparrows
Anonymous at 9.28. I reckon the Eagles will have to do a little bit more than pick up their fitness.
As you rightly point out, Metro's team that played the whole 90 minutes was looking to run out of steam at half time in their first practise game of the year. God knows what the reulst would have been if the Eagles who need to pick up their fitness had stayed on the ground in the decond half.
Going on the size of some of those blokes from Eagles oxygen masks may have needed to be on sytand by.
Anonymous at 10.13. I suppose the game could have been played at Clare St. I'm sure Metro would have been happy to play there if you had organised it. Any other grounds you can think of where it could have been played. Do you think the blokes that needed the hit out would, especially as the previous anonymous thinks, would ahve preferred to play or not.
Not sure how your logic stands up that they will go better on a better surface seeing as both teams played on the same surface. I think you would have been in a lot of trouble if we had been allowed to play on the proper ground. But, I suppose we could have flooded the middle of the ground and turned it into slush to make you feel more at home.
Ohhh Eagles.
Ohhhhhhhh dear. There is no excuse for being unfit three weeks before the summer cup. Even if the club u r playing for has a slack training schedule, u can always go for a run by urself. 4 or 5 eagles players take it seriously (generous) and the rest are rank amateurs that belong having a kick in the park.
eagles you cant complain about the ground, clare st is probably the worst football ground in southern tasmania.
Metro will smash Taroona they will win Div 1 with ease.
decent surface? eagles spend most of the game pumping it long anyway so how would a good pitch help them?
Thanks to george and the eagles boys for coming out last night for the game good hit out hope daisy mckowen ok as hes a class player and it was one of those awful head clashes.
Just one thing on the ground the club has done really well to get that ground up and running in such short amount of time.With the ground shortages the way they are we are luck to be playing anywhere and we all need games and the surface is more than payable we tend to get a bad run out at metro .
But the committe and club have worked really hard so well done and i can tell you mowing the ground with a hand mower with the club captain and a player on sunday was hard work . So we are trying to best we can but the ground probelm needs to be fixed b4 next preseason maybe fft may give it some serious thought and thanks for coming out to ref ivan thanks .
South still the club setting the pace, tweo games over this weekend.
Launceston City on Sat and Eagles Sunday
its not a shock what i seen was two teams in practice match, in prep for season ahead .see where teams are mid season,then comment. goodluck to both teams for the year ahead.the shock was changing whole side half time, STRANGE !!!!!
Its a pity metro are not in the premier league anymore, alot of teams would love to have there home ground, training ground and clubrooms all in the same place. Metro have had so many good players over the years and it would be such a shame to see them rot in div 1 for much longer, goodluck to all the metro people for 2011 hope to see you back in the big time in 2012 T REX
yeah poor result but I still expect Eagles to be a top 5 prospect in 2011 mainly as they know how to play the Clare Street 'skate park' better than most.
Surf's up, finishing fifth is still finishing inthe bottom half of the table.South will still be ahead of all. Slightly closer than last year may be Zebras and then take your pick of the rest.The next best team is miles away from the playing ability of South and Zebras. I also hear that L Scott didnt like it when he was asked to go to left back .Lets see if the coach has the balls to stand up to that type of behaviour .Would not surprise to see L Scott leave if he doesnt get his way.
and at 18 he may have to go to the big isle cos noone here will want him. what an attitude
Ever wondered why Eagles boof the ball more than any other team? To avoid the roller skating rink in the center of Clare St.
Give da boys a break.
Where are all those anons predicting eagles to finish in the final of summer cup now? they will be lucky to get a point in the summer cup and will be failures in the season with Sunday their only threat with Georges long ball game plan
Jaydan wiggins played a great game at sweeper, won everthing in the air. eagles played poo , good to see Batesy back though.
Wiggy was playing under the influence of Bacardi.
Hobart soccer players and supporters are like tropical fish...........they eat their own!
would have loved to see how eagles would have gone playing both halfs with their starting team against a seemingly fit young metro outfit, on another note young cowen's aerial ability was a standout.
that aaron marney is a jet player too. the speed and agility of him on and off the ball.
good looker too
Aaron is mine leave him alone he is my boyfriend :)
Cowen's aerial ability? When the first team for eagles was on he didn't win a header against clamp
Clamp is 6ft 13.
Metro seem to have prepared well for preseason and a dip at promotion. Will be interesting to see how they shape up against Olympia tomorrow.
I would just like to thank Metro Football Club for inviting us for a hit out.
To the others with their negative comments, I feel sad that they do not know what practice games are all about.
Yours in soccer, George Krambousanos.
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