Storm held by Brady boys
Blizzard Storm player-manager Simon Linden insists there’s a lot more to come from the pre-season title favourites after he saw them held to a point by promotion-seeking Brady.
MGBSFL Division One:
Brady Maccabi 1 Blizzard Storm 1
Sunday, 28 September, 2014
Linden saw his side battle out a 1-1 draw against Brady on Sunday morning, and says there’s plenty more to come from his side, who brought in ten new players over the summer, including some former Premier Division players.
He said: “It’s early days. I would have liked to be on six points at this stage but with such a new squad it’s a learning curve and to be unlucky against Camden and take the game to Brady shows great progress.”
Bringing in so many new faces to the squad was always inevitably going to mean it would take time for them all to gel, and while that has ensured a slow start, he believes once they’re all on the same wavelength, the side can really make an impact in the division.
“Players are settling in and finding their feet,” he says, “I’ve only lost one game out of the last ten if you include pre-season, we will get so much better, there’s so much more to come.
“I want us to be up there but it’s going to be tight. So far Redbridge have started well but the rest of us are showing mixed performances. Promotion is 100 percent the aim, the bars been set high.”
Sunday’s game saw them get off to the worst possible start as Josh Newman fired Brady into an early lead with barely minutes on the clock, his third strike of the season.
However, Storm stormed back hitting the woodwork on several occasions, including a stunning 20-yard free-kick from Ben Ellis which crashed back off the crossbar.
It wasn’t though one-way-traffic and Brady had their chances to increase their lead, only to be thwarted by some wayward finishing.
Ellis may have been denied by the frame of the goal, but two minutes after the restart he did get the sides back on level terms when he prodded the ball home from Adam Levene’s cross.
Both sides had chances to score the winner in an action-packed last third of the match, with Brady spurning the better of them, much to the annoyance of Linden. He said: “It was frustrating to not the get the three points, we had a lot of possession and created so many chances.
“Brady defended in numbers and did very well but in all honestly with the chances we had we deserved the points.”
Brady player-manager Josh Dagul was happy with the point. He said: “It was a very competitive game with two sides really going for it. Having taken the lead, it’s obviously disappointing not to win the game. However, they did have the better chances and Sam was the busier of the two goalkeepers so we are happy with the draw.
“We would’ve felt aggrieved to have come away with nothing after the effort the players put in. We had to dig in deep and showed great fight and team spirit. We weren’t at our best going forward but defensively we were outstanding. It was a shame to give away the one goal lead but it was a tough game against a very strong Blizzard and I’m happy with the point.”
Also believing there’s more to come from his side, he said: “We’ve had some tough games and haven’t really hit our stride yet. If we show the same work ethic as today, we will have a good season.
“We’re just taking it game by game for now and will see where we are for the run in.”
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