New Rovers 4 vs 3 ATM

Sunday March 22

Stepford

After unnecessarily losing possession on the edge of his own box, leading to ATM opening the scoring in the third minute of this tightly contested game - then with his team going 2-3 behind from the penalty spot in the second half, YOUCEF NARBESLA almost immediately drew the scores level with a brilliant strike from 16 yards into the goalkeeper’s top right hand corner, then drove through the entire ATM defence, beating man after man, and into the box and, as the keeper approached him to block a shot in goal, he cut the ball back for striker JEBRIL ABDELRAHMAN to smash the ball home for his second goal of the day - and win the game!

JEBRIL ABDELRAHMAN had equalised ATM’s early goal assisted by the scorer of our second goal, AKRAM BYFANZI, who then struck an outstanding long range hit into the top corner to establish a 2-1 lead at the interval.

A competitive ATM side, however, didn’t lie down and found themselves 3-2 up with an excellent finish from a player driving in from the right then a penalty, before the “Youcef Narbesla Show”!

A disappointing defensive display, especially in midfield, where a regular failure to keep the team shape allowed the opposition to cause problems for an over-exposed Back 4.

In a game which kept our progress to the league title on track but which lacked organisation, tempo and, at times, decent pressing, there were only passmarks for skipper David Fiado, Jebril Abdelrahman - back on the scoresheet- Akram Byfanzi, who scored a great goal, his tenth of the season, and late on attempted to shore up the midfield defence to hold onto a one goal lead, Malek Ahmed at right back and, though he did lose the ball more often than usual - but did win the game (!) - Youcef Narbesla.

We will play our usual formation (4-2-3-1) properly in the next game - not the shambolic version of it we played today.

Team:

Zalewski; M Ahmed, Fiado, McPhee, Rodriguez; Al Humaidi, Narbesla; Alqadhi (Alkhabeer), Essadiki, Byfanzi (Martin); Abdelrahman.