League leaders New Fairfield slumped to a shock defeat at the hands of Madison Celtic today. This was sweet revenge for the Madison team that had suffered a 5-2 ( 4-2?) reverse to the same team only a few short weeks ago. Played in an almost unbearable sweltering heat the Madison team kept close possession through most of the first 30 minutes of the game with well timed passing and movement. Several chances to take the lead came and went as the strike force tried their best to emphasize the early superiority of the Madison play. This persistence paid of half way through the first 45 minutes when a sweeping move involving some superb ball control by Carlito on the left wing allowed him to penetrate deep into the Fairfield defence, where he released a superb ball to Eric who slammed it into the net from short range. One nil to the home team and a well deserved lead. After this period of dominance by Madison the visitors came back strongly and with only a few minutes left to the end of the half a break away allowed two of their pacy attackers space in the box and they slotted a goal behind the despairing dive of "El Jimo". One each at the half way point but the bulk of the possession and attacking play clearly coming from a reinvigorated Madison team.
The second half followed the script of the first with strong attacking play by Madison and some tough tackling by the opposition. Carlito's strong, effective wing play had been supplemented by the appearance of Enrique at the start of the second half. This twin strike force tortured the Fairfied defence with mazy dribbles and turns. Almost inevitably, on one such run Carlito was upended in the box for a clear penalty. This was coolly placed in the bottom right hand corner by the team coach, Tom. Two one was a fair score at this point in the game but Fairfield are not top of the league for nothing and again came back strongly, springing the tight Madison defence for a hotly disputed equalizer. At this point the game was evenly balanced and could have gone either way but the strong running of the Madison midfield, ably led by Jody, and the tight man to man marking at the back, built confidence that this would be Madison's day. And, at around the 70th minute, a superb break away by Enrique was rewarded by a fantastic goal to give Madison the lead. With 6 minutes left and the clock running down Madison clinched their deserved victory with yet another exciting goal by man of the match Enrique to finish the game 4-2 to Madison. Great performances by Enrique and Carlos up front with superb support from Eric, Jerry and Jody resulted in a deserved victory. Also, notable today were the solid performances of Danny and Tom P at the back.
Man of the match Enrique!
Celebrating the goal that takes Madison into the lead at 3-2
Some tough tackling puts Carlito on the deck
Post match recovery after a great victory!
The poll has closed for this week and the surprise winner was John collecting 10 votes! Hard luck Danny!! Next poll will be posted tomorrow along with some more highlights from today's game. Feel free to post your comments about the game. The Celtic video bar has also been updated with some new Celtic videos with the focus on Big John Hartson....check them out!
For those of you that turned up for the scrimmage game at Indian River on Sunday.....well done! We played in torrential rain for over an hour and by the end of the session i could see why the park is named after a river. Anyway it was good fun and reminded me of playing back in Scotland.
