Reserves Report: Essendon 2-3 Geelong
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 11:26
One change to the starting line up was made this week by coach Steve Gaitanis. Captain Alex Stefanovic was unavailable and his place in the heart ofthe defence went to Nick Ilievski.Jimmy Vo came into the squad as a substitute. Everything else was as you were from the previous week. Geelong started brightly and showed more desire in the tackle and crispness in the passing and movement.
The deadlock was broken when Alex Ilioski broke clear of a static defence and found himslef 1 on 1 with the keeper. After sheeing his original effort parried Alex has the pewsence of mind to follow up his own work and slot the rebound from a tight angle.
A few minutes latter an wonder strike from Essendon saw parity restored. Geelong threatend time and time with good movement and diagonal passing worriying a square Essendon defence. The lead was restore by Ilioski when he measures a low shot through a crowd of players past the keeper. 2-1 at half time and it looked like we would run all over them in the second half.
Right after half time Essendon were given a penatly that was duly converted. Now they could smell a victory and Geelong was under siege. In thiose situations coaches rely on experinced players to weather the storm. In Chris Balaaburova and Daniel Ho Geelong had such players. The pair of them continuall got their head or foot to a dangerous looking ball to frustrate the hell out of Essendon. Just as it looked like the game would end up a draw, another wise head - Nick Bosevski found himself 1 on 1 with the keeper and his low shot trickled agonisingly over the goal line to secure the victory.
This is an impressive unbeaten run by the reserves and coach Gaitainis can be well pleased with the mixture of youth and experience at his disposal. His team are enjoying their tastings of success and are hungry for more.
