AFC were far from their best, and suffered the ramifications with a humbling 13-5 defeat to the unknown quantity of Hardly Athletic.
Controversy engulfed Olympia HQ before kick-off after a press-leak had revealed contentious squad changes from the 10-5 victory over CPR; before the Christmas break. Jack Grey and Ollie Van Nederveen had been replaced by the prestigious Ben Yakas and Gregor McIntyre. Despite the pairs 6-aside celebrity status, the decision was met with immediate hostility from supporters, with the official fan-group, ‘The Sky’s the Limit’, announcing “this highlights the club’s vulnerability in failing to recognise the form and harmony of the players and the squad.”
Undeterred by the alterations to the team, the boys arrived on Monday with smiles and positivity reverberating amongst the squad. This enthusiastic mentality saw AFC get off to a blistering start. The dogged and tenacious closing down from Yakas, who started upfront, quickly put Olympia on the front foot and prevented the Athletic defence a moment to think. This inevitably led to AFC taking an early lead in a ‘smash and grab’ manner. A counter attack, which started through McIntyre releasing Chessun into space on the left hand side, saw Chessun galloping into the free space ahead of him, before cutting the pass back across the goal, and McIntyre, who had intuitively carried on his run forward, meeting the ball to slot it home. Quickly, it was becoming apparent that the Olympia selection policy had paid off, and even by the final whistle, and despite the score line, it was obvious that this could not be blamed for the defeat. Meanwhile, AFC built on this early advantage, and doubled their lead through James Frudd. His breath-taking footwork freed him space on the left hand-side and he powerfully hit the ball across goal, giving the goalkeeper literally no chance. Incredibly, this was already Frudd’s 20th goal for Olympia, and served as a reminder to the fans what a special player they have playing for them.
Unfortunately, Olympia became a victim of their own success as the intensity with which they were playing at could not be sustained, and rather than controlling and dictating the tempo and direction of play, the boys carried on pushing forward thus leaving gaps in the defence for Athletic to exploit. This led to our tireless, incorruptible bastion of the club, Connor Ward over exposed in defence, and within just a few moments, the game had turned on its head with Atheltic scoring not once, but twice to level the game. Using their experience, and natural physical strength, Athletic began playing the football that had seen their meteoric rise through the divisions to the premiership, without even losing a game. The mentality of the boys was being quickly melted, and the fast start seemed a distant memory, with Athletic ruthlessly imposing an air of arrogance to their game. Despite resilience from MacRitchie in goal, the inevitable Athletic goals came and Olympia were behind not just on the score-line, but crucially psychologically; meaning although a comeback was possible, it seemed out of the question for the boys. Despite play being mostly operated by Athletic, goals did come with Frudd and McIntryre scoring again and Eddie Way also on the scoresheet; before leaving the Olympia camp for a 2 week international call-up. Nevertheless, with Ward the only player truly defending, the Athletic torrent continued to break through.
Full-time came almost as a relief to the boys, and after careful post-match analysis over a Nandos, the feeling of dejection, were soon replaced with assertive positivity and the hunger of donning the blue of Olympia had soon returned.
CCS SPONSORED MAN OF THE MATCH : GREGOR McINTYRE
By James Chessun