MATCH REPORT; Bridgeport 3 Madison Celtic 1

Madison falter away from home

The taste of defeat is always bitter no matter what way it comes to you. And on the face of it, losing away from home to the current Div A champions is not a reason for triggering a lasting depression, but the lingering feeling after this game is that Madison could have won it and at least were deserving of a draw.
Some questionable decisions by the referee early in the game set the tone as every clash resulted in the whistle being blown. This created a very stop-start feel to the first 30 minutes of the game and it seemed to affect our team more than it did the champions Bridgeport. It was also clear that Celtic's game was off it's early season form and most of the disjointed play was coming from Madison Celtics inability to make passes that found any of their players. Having said that, the opening skirmishes were even so it was something of a shock when Bridgeport scored. A corner out on Celtic's right hand side was whipped in to the box at the near post and the defence seemed to react in slow motion as the ball fired straight into the net. An unsettling start was compounded by the Celtic defence's inability to control the tricky fast play of the Bridgeport no 20. He had skill and speed in abundance and at times was turning the Mad Celts defensive line inside out. It was no surprise then when he reacted the quickest to a long ball into the Celtic penalty box, controlling it on his chest before swiveling round the last defender and firing the ball into the net. Although the score at this point was 2-0 it did not feel that Celtic were out of the game and just before half time after a period of good pressure a Bridgeport player handled the ball in the box presenting Celtic with a clear penalty. Roniildo coolly slotted the ball into the net to close the gap to one goal. As the half ended Madison Celts had clawed their way back into the game and looked in the ascendancy.

The second half started with the star no 20 player from Bridgeport threatening to score from almost every attack he made at the Celtic defence. Luckily, the accuracy of his shooting was inversely proportional to his speed. At times it looked like he would have missed the proverbial barn door from just a few feet. He was not the only Bridgeport player in on the act though and several good shots were well saved by the impressive Kevinho. After this initial onslaught at the beginning of the half Madison worked their way back into the game and started to take control with several great chances going wide or over. With little more than 15 minutes left on the clock it looked inevitable that Madison would equalize but fate would decide otherwise. Two shocking decisions by the referee changed the game for Madison. A lobbed shot by Jorge that sailed over the goalie and over the line was not not given as the ref believed the last defender had managed to get to it. If that was bad worse was to come, when Carlito moved down the Bridgeport left hand side cut inside with only the goalie to beat and was slammed to the ground by the onrushing goalkeeper in what was the most clear stonewall penalty you could imagine. Unfortunately the only person on the field who did not see the incident was the referee and that was that. Even though Madison continued to fight it was clear this was not going to be their day. In the last minute of the game Bridgeport scored a third through an unfortunate own goal.....

A tough defeat and a scoreline that clearly flattered Bridgeport. They will still be tough to beat when they visit Madison's home ground but if the Celts play the way they did in the second half and even get a fraction of the luck that deserted them today, that bitter taste should be replaced by the sweet smell of revenge.

Man of the Match; Kevinho, with a string of great saves that kept Bridgeport at bay when they were having a good spell in the game