Pearl Coast Pirates formally claimed the Broome Soccer Association B-Liga title on Wednesday night, after Hagan’s Heroes faltered against
The Pirates had started the season strong, relying on game-changing performances by Gareth Jones and Phil Sheridan to propel them up the table, but after losing the two playmakers to interstate teams, struggled to perform late in the season.
Only a win against NDFC last week was enough to give the Pirates the points to force the issue at the top of the table.
This title win now makes the men in black Broome’s most successful B-Liga side, with two championships in three years.
Perennial runners-up Hagan’s Heroes had the impossible task of trying to beat
With talismanic Heroes midfielder Mike Doyle lost to injury, the Greens were always going to struggle, although captain Chris Stainton tried manfully to push his side into a higher gear.
In the other match of the round, cellar-dwellers NDFC and Racing Guantanamo AFC went head-to-head in a match that would see the loser claim the wooden spoon.
The score see-sawed throughout, with one side taking the lead and then the other in an exciting flowing game of football.
Just after half-time, young Jon Falconer managed to score what was possibly the greatest ever B-Liga goal, with a sizzling shot just under half-way that flew past goalkeeper Jon Gallichan and buried itself in the top-left corner.
That goal however was not to keep NDFC out of the game, when Nicky Anear capitalised on some soft Guantanamo defending to put his side in front again.
Controversy abounded late in the second half, when referee Richard Brunger waved play-on after a blatant NDFC handball, resulting in an NDFC goal.
Despite protests from several
Indeed, Brunger was keen to stamp his authority on the game, calling numerous soft fouls and even a penalty in what was turning into a niggly affair.
With NDFC ahead by one goal,
This was the fourth match in a row that Guantanamo had lost by one goal scored in the last five minutes, and condemned them to finish bottom of the table for the second time in three years.
Captain Andy Smyth will have his work cut-out to turn the Mighty Orange into title-challengers.
With the B-Liga now over for the 2009 season, the Broome Soccer Association will take a recess and kick off again next year in early February with the indoor Broomedesliga futsal competition.
The Ref in the Hagans v City game was the worst ref this season,with the linesman calling offside and waving his flag numerous times the ref played on with both sides scoring with the bad decisions,we love to have linesman every game,but when we do finally have them the Ref still ignores them.He gets my vote for the worst Ref in B-liga history.
ReplyDeleteC'mon lads, it's hard to sympathise with you when you don't follow one of footballs most basic rules that you should have learned as a junior and PLAY THE WHISTLE! The ball evan bounced to a Racing player. Racing conceded 35 goals in 8 games for 7 losses I doupt one bad decision decided the game but rather conceding soft goals & not finishing chances in front of goal. If your handing out awards who did the worst team award go to..
ReplyDeleteThe bloody linesman had a whistle and he blowed it.Both teams didnt have a problem with each other just the Ref,we talk about how good it is to have linesman and when we do the Ref ignores it,cmon how many games have you seen this happen,not many i tell ya,lucky my name isnt Sir Alex
ReplyDeleteIf the Ref isnt going to use his linesman then we dont need linesman.If you want to follow basics like we learned in juniors why cant we slide tackle,I sure did as a junior,this is Broome we have fun its not the Premier League,i was playing for City that night and both teams where let down by that Ref,and to find out he is not part of any other team in broome and never been down before then thats the committees fault,I think chris from Hagans even spoke to the Ref about how rarely we have linesman and its a Bonus we had two last night and the Ref ignored 90% of calls,cmon and it did had a bearing on the Game it should of been a draw cause we scored 3 times when the linesman had his flag up.Sorry Hagans but you guys had a real good game and it was in my opion the best game of the season.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the premier league so why are you expecting officials not to make any bad calls when as we see week in week out ( Ireland v France ) evan officials who get paid and train can't get calls right. Slide tackling was banned early on for reasons unknown.. Playing the whistle wasn't. As you said we have fun this is Broome. The players coming down have most likely never overseen a match!! You answered your own question. These guys came down and did the best they could. It's like you've never played with real officials before and had bad calls. If you've played juniors or any level of football anywhere bad calls are inevitable.
ReplyDeleteSo why have linesman when the ref doesnt use them.Maybe the committee should discuss this because it ruined the last game of the season,you want people to come down everyweek and go home happy.Linesman are pretty much Refs aswell.Lets build the game in Broome not destroy it we dont need the abuse on the field and one day someone will snap and someone will get hurt,do something now not later.
ReplyDeleteTechnically the referee does not have to follow the linesman. If the referee thinks the linesman is wrong, he can over-rule him. He is in charge - That's why they are only assistants, they are there to help the referee, not over-rule him. At the end of the day - the referee's decision is final.
ReplyDeleteI suggest a training course that should be mandetory for all official refereeing or doing lines duty in the B-Ligua. We, after all, are striving for professionalism.
ReplyDeleteTuffen up girls..
ReplyDeleteRefs do their job to the best of their ability.
I don't think anyone lost a sheep station by the VOLUNTEER Refs lack of experience.
Soccer has a bad image for whinging and this site only confirms that!!
IYA
I agree, but who would be willing to do it? After all, does anyone really want to referee in the first place???
ReplyDeleteA referee training course is a good idea - perhaps next year each team could put forward a few volunteers who don't mind reffing to do the course before the outdoor season. That way there would be enough people to make it viable to run here.
ReplyDeleteHey guys,I agree with both sides up above,as the captain of Hagans on the night I did talk to the ref and after some bad calls i told the ref lets use the linesman,anyway lets move forward and forget about that game and look forward to the future,As a committe member i will bring this up,maybe if we get a social thing happening we can use that for people to get use to linesman and then see how things go.
ReplyDeleteAnyway good to see how passionate some of you are
Chris from Hagans
In response to 'tuffen up girls'... Maybe you should've begun with 'Toughen up whingers'
ReplyDeleteDon't undermine 'girls'... I find it very offensive and belittling.
Don't associate the 'weakness' that you see, with women in general.
KD
Sorry KD, no point saying we follow FIFA regulations cause you will stir up a storm,lets just play fair like we normally do and get some training done,see you all sat night
ReplyDeleteNow, whoever made that comment about awarding Guantanamo the worst team in the B-Liga, I believe is being unsportsmanlike and doesn't have a clue what he is talking about. We go out there every week, we have the most registered players in the league and we always fulfill our refereeing duties with a minimum of fuss. I think you will find that we also complain the least (most of the time and with the exception of my performance in our first game against NDFC).
ReplyDeleteOn that note, I agree that referee training is a good idea, so at least teams are aware of where they stand. I know this would be hard to accomodate but at least it sets a standard.
What needs to happen, is that people need to stop complaining, stop calling any infringements themselves and above all everybody needs to start playing honestly and in good spirit. This year I have found that Broome City and NDFC have been the worst in this area (both complaining and calling fouls) and they have always been at the centre of the poor refereeing debate.
Unfortunately Richard has ended up as being a bit of a scape goat and I actually think he refereed a good game. I think what threw him off was that players weren't playing 'the whistle' like you are supposed to (in all sports).
Get over yourselves fellas, eat a spoonful of cement and harden up.
PS Think about poor Chris, he had to tolerate my crazy old man heckling everybody (including me) the other week. Now that would have been a hard game to ref.
See ya's on Saturday
hear hear, umpiring is tough and anyone who has not done it should shut there whiny mouths and be a man and take it on the chin or you can leave and go play with your teddys and have a cry in the sand pit.We need respect for the guy in the middle regardless, perspective on the game changes when doing ref work, lets help not hinder, see you sat for a rippa of a night, onward and upward.
ReplyDeleteLadies and gentlemen on behalf of the raging empire that is the broome soccer association thank you for your passionate opinions. Great to see so many responses and suggestions and a pity it has taken until the end of the entire season to hear some critic on how to develop.
ReplyDeleteI, and indeed the committee, would be more than happy to discuss anything that might help us progress and indeed would be more than willing to answer any questions as to the running of our association. If only you weren't all so anonymous i'd contact you myself....
At the end of the day it doesn't matter if the ref is wrong - he's the ref and what he says goes. I beleive the problem we have is the refs not getting the respect they deserve. They're giving up their night's to come down so you can play and all players should be grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteAll that said I do beleive some refing classes before next season wouldn't go astray - I know I could definitely use them.
See you all next season.
Ben