Game 9: Balaga 4 - World Class 1

After 2 defeats in a row Balaga really needed to get back to winning ways as they faced bottom side World Class for the second time this season. John Duggan was unavailable due to international duty with CIT up in Galway. Damo started in goals with Tom O’C and Deano playing left and right back. Center back saw Kevin B start for the second week with Webz sitting just in front of the back 3 in a Dechamps watershed roll. Ahead of Webz was Parker, in a familiar attacking midfield roll. Rory was given the job of breaking down the World Class defence up front on his own while Phil O’D was rotated to the sidelines for the beginning of this fixture.

Earlier on in the campaign when these 2 sides met Balaga dropped their first points of the season with a 3-3 draw. This time the cucumbers were not in a mood to drop points this time round and started well with a few chances early doors. The tactic of using a defensive midfielder seemed to steady the Balaga nerves after last week’s upset may have put doubts in players minds over its deployment. It appeared each player had a better understanding of the tactics and seemed more comfortable with the job in hand.

The game was set alight after a Rory rocket from 15-20 yards.. Early doors.. But this was soon cancelled out after a freak goal from the bottom side World Class saw a hopeless effort from their attacking midfielder sailing wide only for the lodging striker to tap the wayward shot into the Tongo net for 1-1. But this setback didn’t deter Balaga from their mission of collecting all 3 points. An on slot onto the Class goal followed with every outfield player trying his luck in an attempt to pull one ahead again. It eventually came from the boot of Rory again with a trademark volley from a corner to make it 2-1 Tongo at half-time.

The second half began as the first ended with attack after attack from the Tongoians athough WC had a couple of break aways which were smothered out by solid defending by the back 3 and confidence building saves from Damo. 3-1 was soon to follow as Phil O’D scored a rare tap in from a corner kick, and not much longer after that Parker got himself on the score sheet after some neat interplay between the Balaga attack saw him tap in a cool finish from a Rory squared ball.

4-1 the final score. Hopefully Balaga are back on the right track to success this season. There was no video footage of the match again this season as Tyrrell TV and broadcasting Network arrived late and didn’t bother.



A 9 point gap between Balaga and Seven FC may be a big one but its far from over yet. The Cucumbers can still pull off a very first championship winner title to their name.