Tu – Price (Valsechi)  - Jankowski – Gjesdal –  Minorkawa (Ho) – Dotta - Diaz (Lucio) – Mocelinn– Bucciali – Magaud  - Michel (De Maria)

 In the end we should have and could have gotten more than a point from this game. Overall a great performance from our players -  a great work ethic, a lot of running, good football but once those split seconds of indiscipline in the second half meant Latini had an uphill battle for 30min.
Back to the game – we started poor. Vikings were on top for the first 15-20min and had a 2-3 good chances to go ahead but good defending and goal-keeping (glad to see Cuong is fit again) kept us in the game. We slowly started to get into the game and control the midfield area. In the end a Vikings won a header in midfield (or possibly a handball) and subsequently scored the opening goal – at this stage probably just about deserved. We finally got our goal from a well taken corner, beautifully finished by Benji. We finished the first half dominating and went into the half time confident we could get the win.
We started the second half with confidence and it only took us a few minutes to get the lead. A nice run by Rob down the line and a low cross finished off by Olive Magaud – 2:1 Latini. At this stage it looked like we could run riot. We were in control, moving the ball well and always looking dangerous going forward.
However, Latini’s indiscipline would costs us – first Olive Magaud making a nice run down the left flank, passing the ball around a Vikings defender at full speed and than being taken out with a bodycheck and a highelbow in the face. Unfortunately Olive reacted which resulted in a red card – no card for Vikings – strange. Down to 10 men, a few minutes later and Gaetan did well to shield the ball for a goalkick. After that Gaetan reacted to provocation from the Vikings striker..once again a red card, this time also a yellow for Vikings. Latini now down to 9 men….when will our players learn to control themselves for those split seconds that today will cost us 2 points.
As expected we defended deep and tried to score on the counter we created another 3 great opportunities and to be honest should have finished off the game, even with 9 men on the pitch. All Latini players worked extremely hard and kept the Vikings to shots from 20-25yards. In the last minute of extra time one of these shots would be deflected by Francois – unstoppable for Cuong in the top corner. It was just going to that kind of the day. Final score 2:2. Man of the match had a few contenders- Chris, Fafa, Yann but it has to go to Benji for his outstanding play both defensively as well as going forward when given the chance – fantastic.

Referee –  3out of 10. Very poor and inconsistent. I have no complaints about the 2 red cards we received. But if the referee asks you before the game how many subs are allowed – you know you are going to be in for a tough one. Very inconsistent with decisions, poor decsision on offside (with our player coming from 5 yards onside and our offside player stopping his run surely ref’s should know the rule), yellow card for a first tackle from our player off the bench, no cards for players committing 4/5 of the same fouls.