Viking Land News
Major celebrations as Vikings clinch promotion.
Vikngland is bouncing today with the news that the team will be playing first division football next season. The Vikings win coupled with Liverpools loss to Kirkbride means promotion is now assured even though for large parts of the game it looked like the Vikings forwards were going to draw blanks again!
The Vikings could have been wondering if it was not going to be their day as early as the 10th minute when Papakostas' excellent bending free kick beat the Kensington keeper but not the upright. The team had been told to be positive and Strachan had a header blocked on 23 as they prodded for openings. Another free kick followed on 25 but this time Papakostas got the ball inside the posts but the Kensington keeper did excellently to turn the shot round the post. Ahlm then wasted a golden opportunity on 41 heading straight at the keeper when left unmarked. 0-0 at half time, the Vikings bossing possession and creating chances but again failing to turn this into goals.
At this point the Kirkbride-Liverpool game was also goalless and if results had stayed like this then a very nervous last game would have followed.
Early in the second half Papakostas continued to exasperate his manager with another free kick which was aimed straight at the keeper. And then it happened, Kensington forced a corner and when the Vikings defence failed to deal with it Bunbury showed what a prolific striker should do and scored with his first (and his teams only) chance.
With the other game still 0-0 at this moment the Vikings had dropped out the top three and would not have had their destiny in their own hands. The manager was seen on the touch line bellowing instructions and telling his senior players to get hold of the game, however it was the managers earlier decision to start with young high form Justin Portway that was to make the difference.
Portway levelled the game on 71 lobbing the ball over the advancing Gardiner as Milic had slotted him through with a great ball. This was Portways first goal for the club and one he and his manager will never forget. Papakostas then again practised hitting free kicks straight at the keeper on 73 as the Vikings looked for the winner that would at least ensure that they had control over their own future. Then on 81 minutes a roar went round the ground as news filtered through from the bush that Fraser Symington had done for Kirkbride what Papakostas was failing to do for the Vikings and had scored from a free kick to put kirkbride ahead.
The roar seemed to lift the home team and 2 minutes later Papakostas decided to pass rather than shoot and laid the ball off for Portway who finished with a maturity belying his 17yrs. The home fans celebrated the goal as if winning the championship itself as realisation dawned that if results stayed as they were then the Vikings were up!
An eternity went by as the Vikings looked to see out the win and where the ref found a full 5 minutes of injury time we will never know!! The final whistle had gone at the bush as well and it was official the Vikings had done it and were promoted.
Richard Humphries had a huge smile on his face as he greeted the players coming off the pitch but he reserved extra special attention for Portway who had repaid the managers gamble of putting such a young player into such a big game with the two goals that put the team up.
The manager was understandably happy after the game which he felt his side definitely deserved to win with 60% possession and 8 chances to 1. He however did have some sympathy for buttons the manager of Liverpool, "it's been clear for a while now that one out of 4 teams was going to have the heartbreak of missing out this year" said the manager "and I have a lot of respect for buttons and his team and am sure they will challenge again next season but at the moment I just want to revel in my first promotion"
"The last game of the season will now feature every player not yet at 100% match experience even if it means playing a stupid formation and having an average age of less than 26 throughout the team" said the boss "the game now has no bearing on promotion or relegation so I feel I can do this with a clear mind."
Get through this game, get the change report and prepare for life in division 1 seemed to be the managers theory.All in all happy times for Humphries and the Viking team.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment