Maroubra United vs Lokomotiv PL

After riding 120 minutes of emotion on Wed and backing up was always going to be a tough task on what turned out to be a hot mid-Autumn afternoon.

This was made tougher by a mishap at the back that allowed Maroubra to sneak through and go 1 up after only 3 minutes. However Loko attacked from the kick off and had Maroubra on the back foot only to see Nick Keys beautiful low strike from outside the box bullet into the back of the net.

Within a minute it was Maroubra's turn to have a mis-hap in the back for Rhys Robinson to duly convert. So 5 minutes and 3 goals! it was 2-1 to Loko.

From there the game settled into a fairly even rhythm and in the minutes before half time Maroubra broke through with a cut back ball that saw them have plenty of time to pick the spot and convert bringing us to half-time at 2 a piece.

From there the game was for the taking but truly NOTHING went Loko's way not even any of the calls from the middle, and it was a free 15' into the 2H from outside the box driven through the wall that saw Maroubra go 3-2 up. The heat, the fatigue, not getting any calls from the middle (ref) saw Loko wilt, and the next 15 saw Maroubra score 2 more to go 5-2 up and that was it but an unfortunate (called) hand ball in the final seconds of the game (in the box = penalty) making it 6-2 down.

The records will not accurately reflect the effort or how close the game was. We didn't deserve points today but neither did we deserve the final scoreline. All I can say is we look forward to meeting Maroubra next time and rectifying the ledger!