Uprising Suffer First Defeat of the Season
After a long break from club football due to the recent international break, Uprising took to the field for our third AFL 2021 game of the season. Although there were a few players missing due to injuries and work commitments, the spirit in the squad was still high following our excellent start to the season. In saying that though all at the club knew what a tough 90 minutes that lay ahead with our opposition being Docs United.
The opening exchanges of the game were fairly even with both sides steadily feeling their way into the game. In the 6th minute, the first real chance of note came to Docs, a good low cross was drilled into the penalty area from the right which narrowly evaded the Docs striker with the ball going safely out of play. Two minutes later, Matthew Brown who has had a fine start to the season denied Docs from sending in a dangerous cross with a superb tackle.
In the 11th minute our goalkeeper Arlan Petty who was deputising for regular custodian Rachad Thomas due to Rachad playing right back, did well when he rushed out from goal to deny Docs a shooting opportunity. Three minutes later it was that man Petty again who produced another fine piece of goalkeeper, saving a shot from close range. Sadly, Petty could not do anything about Docs taking the lead in the 17th minute through a wonderful long range strike from Jermaine Ricketts.
Following us going a goal down Uprising continued to work hard, keeping a nice shape and made some inroads into the Docs United defence but unfortunately could not reduce their arrears. On 25 minutes, Tre Gumbs delivered a dangerous looking cross field ball into the Docs penalty area but unfortunately the ball just evaded Davin Fleming with the ball being cleared away. Uprising were now having a really decent period of possession and were starting to look dangerous.
It was Docs who had the next chance to score however when their striker was clean through on goal only for Petty to save the day again in the 31st minute of play. Five minutes later Docs had another good chance to double their lead but were thwarted by more good defending. Uprising immediately went up the other end of the pitch with the ball landing at the feet of Fiedtkou who beat a couple of defenders before being a denied a shooting chance by the Docs goalkeeper.
The final ten minutes or so of the first half were fairly uneventful which meant the two teams went into the half time break with the game still all to play for.
Half Time Score: Uprising 0 - 1 Docs United
It was the worst possible start to the second half for Uprising when literally seconds after the resumption of play, Docs doubled their advantage with a close range goal from Stewart Murray. It nearly got worse for the lads just a minute later but Petty came to the rescue by producing a good save to deny Johnson.
Although disappointed to go two goals down Uprising were still putting up a good fight and at times playing some very good football. This was shown in the 56th minute with a great move down the right, the ball was passed to to Davin Fleming who shot at goal but the Docs goalkeeper was equal to the task.
Drama in the 65th minute as the floodlights went out! There was a delay of approximately 40 minutes before the game could resume. Docs made the game safe just five minutes after the restart courtesy of a close range goal scored by Guishard. Again, Uprising showed a great determination following this latest set back and still played some good football. At times it looked quite likely that we would reduce the arrears but through a mixture of bad luck and good defending by Docs it was not to be.
The last chance of the game fell to Docs when the impressive Jermaine Rickets saw his shot go narrowly wide of the near post.
So, Uprising suffer their first defeat of the season but there are a lot of positives to be taken out of this game as we move further into the campaign.
Uprising Line Up:
40. Arlan Petty, 13. Tre Gumbs, 17. Matthew Brown ( C ) 2. Ea-Rhon Rogers, 28. Rachad Thomas (55 min / 18. Rayquan Gumbs) 7. Javis Jones, 16. Shakeem Lewis (87 min / 6. Denny Derrick) 4, Stephan Fiedtkou, 10. Rene Thomas, 26. Ricardo Petty, 8. Davin Fleming (83 min / 24. Sanjay Harrigan)