MATCH REPORT; Madison 1 Guilford 4

Madison Crash To Heavy Defeat Against Strong Local Rivals

A poor showing by Madison Celtic produced as inept and lackluster a performance as I have seen all season against their local rivals the Guilford Hawks. Slack passing, poor positioning and weak attempts at goal littered this performance against a very strong Guilford team.

Even though Madison had a full squad and subs available for the first time in weeks they could not rise to the occasion against a well organised opposition. Although the refereeing decisions were at times hard to understand this particular defeat was well deserved.

Madison were under pressure straight from the kick off and seemed unusually disorganized throughout the team. Long balls from the Guilford backs and midfield were allowing their fast as lightening forwards to run through the middle of the Madison defence. This is a particular tactic that teams have used against Madison to good effect over the last year. Their first goal was after a rushed pass to Roniildo was intercepted by the opposition players, a quick cross into the box and a powerful header by their number 44 was parried by BOR but straight back to the opposition striker allowing him to head back into the the net. Their second goal started from a punt up the field to a player in an offside position. Unfortunately the ball bounced off of La Boca on the way there and the ref allowed the move to continue. They moved the ball quickly into the box and scored to take a two nil lead. At this point Madison were struggling to complete any passes or mount any type of attack. It was therefore against the run of play when a break up the left side allowed Dejan to squeeze the ball into the net to claw Madison back into the match. Unfortunately, the come back did not last long as Guilford again mounted another blistering attack and restored their two goal lead with an outstanding 30 yard shot from their no 44 that scorched past BOR into his top left hand corner. 3-1 down at the half and to be honest Madison were in disarray with no shape to their team and no apparent tactics to get back into the game.

The second half started with Madison in a very subdued mood barely holding onto any competitive position in the game. And it was no surprise when they fell further behind when the defence was unable to clear an easy ball allowing Guilford to scramble a shot past the despairing dive of BOR and over the line. The rest of the game really fizzled out after this with Guilford not really trying to empathize their superiority and Madison unable to mount any type of cohesive attack. The final whistle was a blessing for the Madison team and they can now retreat for the week to lick their wounds and hopefully get right back into the thick of the action with another home game next week against Southington.

MAN OF THE MATCH; La Boca! As all around him were losing their positions, their cool and their form La Boca was an island of calm maturity at the back. Now there's a sentence you never thought you would read!