Classics united, United not........

The Classics took the road trip to Tssawwassen to visit the dreaded Beach Grove field, home of Delta United. Fortunately for the Classics on this day the tide was out. The game got underway and the visitors took an early lead through Billy Ranger. The ball was well won by Jim Eden near the touchline close to the centre line and he set off on a left wing run, hacking his way through the long grass with a macheti, to the dead ball line. Seeing Ranger in an unmarked position at the far side of the box, he sent over an inch perfect cross which Ranger gleefully headed into the bottom left corner of the net to open his account for the season. The match was just two minutes old.

In the fourth minute Ranger was again put away on a break to goal and was unlucky to see his rasping shot come thundering back off the crossbar. In the 13th. minute a beatiful header from Chris Arcari put the Classics 0-2 up and well in the driving seat. It looked like a rout was on the cards but three minutes later, a mis-timed tackle from the evergreen Ray Marrington let in a United forward, who lofted a shot high over the advancing Garry Hackel and into the net to reduce the deficit to one goal. A quick whip-round on the touchline resulted in a large amount of funding which may just be enough to send Hackel off to Mexico a week or two earlier. The remainder of the first half was one of missed chances, most of them at the Delta end of the field.

The second half saw a better performance from the Classics but the finishing was just not there. John Wilson must have had 47 shots in the game but still the home keeper had only two shots to stop. The words barn door and banjo somehow spring to mind. Nuff said! Doug Smith put in lots of effort obviously trying to emulate on last week's goal and he was playing out of his skin, mind you that's not a pretty sight so we'll leave it at that. The build up play was still improving and 15 minutes from the end a speculative overhead kick from Tony Short almost came to nothing. In fact, it was more like a unicycle kick than a bicycle kick but at least it brought a titter of laughter from the rest of the players.

With just three minutes remaining the game was sealed with a delightful move. Manfred Soucker took the ball on the right hand side of the field and played a beautiful ball through to Bruce Cook who was lurking at the right hand side of the penalty box. Showing great vision, Cook back-heeled the ball perfectly into the path of Ranger who took it to the right of the keeper before curling his shot into the back of the net to put the game beyond any doubt.

Final Score 1-3 (1-2)

Stats:
J. Eden red carded for persistent mouthing
You were crap award: C. McGill