Berries Swoop Magpies For Three Points

LPFC U21's have claimed a deserved three points over Miranda Magpies 1 with a 3-2 win at home to a record crowd - thrusting the team up into the top four (at least I think so). A brilliant brace from Squeak coupled with a well finished penalty from midfielder Matthew Phipps was enough to seal the win in what were very temperate conditions.

A squad fresh from what seems like one of the most shocking scandals in footballing history - since captain Steven Foldi revealed he thought the term 'fish fingers' actually meant pieces of deep fried fish fillets -lined up against a decent looking Miranda outfit, with only two players to spare.

The game started well enough with Pilli controlling the ball neatly which caused a fustrated Miranda side to concede an early penalty. Squeak Psarras, playing in a more advanced position than normal, ran onto a though-ball down the right flank and into the box where a particularly aggressive opposition player came in with a flying kick to the head and was judged to not have won the ball. Free kick king Phipps promptly lined up the shot and tucked it into the old onion bag with ease. Pilli 1, Miranda 0. The crowd went wild.

The game continued to sway Pilli's way with brilliant displays from the backline - namely Paul Clarke, who consistently won the ball for his team, and Jackson Versitano who putt to bed rumours that he had sustained a serious injury the previous match. It wasnt long until Pilli doubled their lead on the 19 minute 23 second mark. Another well worked play from the back sent a lofting ball from the right flank into the center of the 18-yard box, onl for a miscued Miranda clearance to land straight to the feet of little man Squeak who took a few light touches and slammed, thrusted, pounded, drilled and hammered the ball home off the cross bar to send the crowd into ecstacy. 2-0 Pilli's way.

As the half came to a close there were numerous chances for both sides, with the centre midfield of Jacob Healey and now Squeak working well with strikers Burg and Fonseca, the latter of which had two great opportunities to put Pilli further infront, but decided he didn't want the title of top goalscorer as he's just that type of a nice and selfless guy...with massive biceps, (ladies, once again I am available on facebook).

Pilli two up at half time it wasn't meant to be as Miranda struck back right on the 45 minute mark. An outward curling corner was cleared off the top of a Pilli player only for it to fall nicely for a Magpies player who sent a flying half volley into Claydens left side - a decent goal I must admit (who won but?). And so the half finished Pilli up by one goal.

The second half began particularly more brightly than the first and it was barely 2.345 minutes (approximately) young - still with blood from the mothers womb - when Pilli struck for their third an what was to be final goal. After an initial rapid one-two exchange of passes between rat-tail wearing right-back Daniel Costa and Fonseca (whoa, forgot to insert my standard godly-like adjective in before my name), Costa pinged the pall down the left flank for Damien 'too-sexy-for-his-shirt-so-much-it-hurts' Fonseca (there we go) to open up the play and send cute cross into Burg who glanced it onto an onrushing Squeak, firing the ball low and hard into the 'keepers right corner. Apologies for the use of the entirely necessary brackets.

Pilli seemed to be crusing, often holding posession with a string of neat passes. The teams' wing players seemed to form a solid understanding of eachother - between both Costa and Fonseca and Treacey and Clarke - resulting in a beautiful shot from Costa only for the opposition 'keeper to pull off a stunning save to deny the wing-back his first professional career goal for Pilli (again, who won?). Not to be left out is William Clayden, who made various important saves to keep Pilli infront, namely a near post save. Unfortuanate as it is, Versitano managed to topple an opposition player in the penalty box which resulted in the games' second spot-kick, which was placed away neatly by a Magpie player against their former 'keeper.

This late penalty served as a somewhat revival for the opposition, though an unlikely draw was not to be as Pilli clinched their second win of the season (Woo hoo) after the referee blew for time. Pilli now face their own club next week in what promises to be an exciting local derby. Details are listed in the fixture panel to the right hand side.