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Blog entry
Season 7 Match Day 14 - Insmouth dig in to inflict first league loss to Peregrinos
submitted by KevinHann 2777 days 8 hrs 40 mins ago
by Robert "Pennywise" Gray

The final match of Insmouth's heavy fixture list of derbies concluded today with a trip to St Alba Isabella, home of unbeaten Peregrinos (8) - a team sitting on equal points with us at the top of the table. Manager FulchesterUnited lead them to a third place finish last season but hopes for a better run this campaign, including some silverware. A completely realistic prospect considering his lads are still in the running for all competitions.

Insmouth Gazette pundits quite frankly expected a draw from this match with 8 of them thinking the spoils would be shared, while 2 backed a home win and the remaining 2 gave Insmouth the nod for a sneaky win.

Needless to say St Alba Isabella was at full capacity with 10,000 fans eager to support their team (and nearly 2,300 more watching in the mix zone after failing to obtain a ticket).

Peregrinos played a fluid 4-3-3 formation and fielded a starting lineup of exceptional quality. The most impressive names on their team sheet were keeper Danny Bramble (69), CB Fouad Hussein (72), FB Archie Cudworth (74), right winger Luciano Prado (69), CM Morgan Fairchild (69), AM Bruno De Mattos (76), as well as striker Vasyklo Lipko (70).

Insmouth persisted with the 4-5-1 and once again employed keeper Giacomo Feriani (58.) in LB and striker Cian Jaggar (56) on the right side of midfield.

Insmouth enjoyed an advantage in GK and attack while Peregrinos had more quality in midfield. The two sides were relatively similar in defense.

The very first minutes suggested this was a match Insmouth didn't want to lose. We relied on a compact defensive shape and allowed the hosts to dictate the tempo. Pre-match expectations were of a great battle in the middle but Cheetahs were wary of the quality they were up against and opted to minimize risks instead of pressing high and allowing Peregrinos to hit us on the break.

This pragmatic approach sounded good on paper but our defense simply wasn't good enough to handle the pressure. The hosts created too many chances and were able to get the ball to their strikers way too often in the first thirty minutes.

It was a small miracle we didn't crumble under the serious home pressure and concede. Our goalie Frank Rosewarns (73) was brilliant between the posts and pulled a number of unbelievable saves.

Football can be a cruel game. While it was looking increasingly likely the home team would get the opener any minute, Insmouth CB Bettino Vetrano (66) hacked one ball away and Leo Furtado stood his ground for the header to cleverly nod it past his marker and beat him with an explosive sprint towards the corner flag. With no support around, Leo had to play alone. Instead of taking the easy option and trying to earn a corner, Furtado cut inside the box and took a speculative effort from a very tight angle.

The ball deflected off the foot of a defender and caught Peregrinos keeper Danny Bramble (69) by surprise, bouncing off the near post before ending up in the net behind!

36' - GOAL!!! 0-1 - Leo Furtado (Bettino Vetrano assist)

Leo Furtado ran towards the visitor stands to celebrate with the fans and pulled his shirt before his teammates caught up with him and brought him down in a collective hug. Once the wild celebrations were over the referee showed Furtado the yellow card.

37' - Yellow Card! Leo Furtado (Insmouth Cheetahs)

Peregrinos reacted to this goal by tightening the grip over possession but Insmouth now had more confidence and allowed no more serious chances in front of our goal until the end of the first half.

Some heavy home pressure was expected immediately after the break but instead it was Cheetahs who went forward and looked for a second goal. This change surprised the hosts and caused havoc in their lines.

Those minutes were agruably the best spell Insmouth had in the match and Furtado came close to grabbing his second when he rose in the air to connect with an inviting cross... but the ball grazed the top of the bar - what a narrow miss.

Furtado wasn't in forgiving mood though and made up for this wasted chance only seconds later when Kikugoro Sugahara (63) repeated the cross from the left side. Leo got his head to the ball and powerfully aimed it on the right side of the bar - it went past Bramble's desperate reach, deflected off the woodwork and bounced behind the goalline!

47' - GOAL!!! 0-2 - Leo Furtado (Kikugoro Sugahara assist)

Furtado made the shorter run towards the fans as the visitors stand was behind Peregrinos goal now but this time resisted the temptation to pull his shirt off.

Peregrinos were in shock and Cheetahs looked to exploit that in the minutes immediately after the goal. Another dangerous attack forced home CB Fouad Hussein to trip Lyapo Adelaja just in front of the penalty area as our midfielder was looking to get the ball to Furtado in space. The referee duly showed Hussein the yellow.

51' - Yellow Card! Fouad Hussein (Peregrinos)

Furtado laid the ball to take the resulting free kick and Bramble could only watch as his strike curled above the wall and bounced off the bar... and over in out.

This unfortunate miss signalled the end of Insmouth's short but inspired stint of dominance in this match. Peregrinos recovered immediately after and took firm control until the very end.

Cheetahs were content with dropping behind and protecting the two goal lead like we did in the first half. Our attacks became about holding the ball in the opposition half to allow some breathing space for the defense to recover and often resulted in tactical fouls when the ball was lost.

One such foul saw Cian Jaggar get a booking for blatantly holding a Peregrinos midfielder by the shirt to the point he ripped it. Cian couldn't hold his smile while the home player pointed his ragged shirt to the referee.

62' - Yellow Card! Cian Jaggar (Insmouth Cheetahs)

Peregrinos had no intention to give up just yet. Striker Rodrigo Amaral (65) thought he had pulled one back when he got on the end of a poorly cleared ball only to be disappointed by yet another brave save by Rosewarns.

Insmouth looked to freshen things up with a couple subs. Feriani and Jaggar went off to be replaced by Okoro and Gos.

71' - Substitution (Insmouth Cheetahs): RM Cian Jaggar (56) off; defensive midfielder Ellhard Gos (47) on

71' - Substitution (Insmouth Cheetahs): LB Giacomo Feriani (58.) off; hole player Ottah Okoro (32) on

The hosts were on top of their game and chose to avoid changes at this stage.

Despite the subs Cheetahs continued to take the game in their own half. While we had defended well so far it was way too early to sit so deep and wait for the final whistle. Such a passive play was always going to get punished and Peregrinos didn't take long to do just that. Star striker Vasyklo Lipko eventually got to one of the numerous crosses to flick it on and the ball made its way to his fellow forward Rafael Abreu (66) who was completely alone at the far post. Rosewarns was left stranded and had no chance to react to the close range header Abreu powered in the net!

78' - GOAL!!! 1-2 - Rafael Abreu (Vasyklo Lipko assist)

This gave a vital lifeline to the hosts and they continued to attack, looking for an equalizer now.

There were a couple more heartstopping moments and Insmouth didn't get out of their own half until the end of the match but Rosewarns was on top of his form to save close range efforts from both Abreu and Amaral.

The referee only assigned one minute of added time and it wasn't enough for Peregrinos to create much more. Midfielder Prado tried a long range effort with seconds left and it went well wide off the mark. Rosewarns was prepared to take his time taking the goal kick but the final whistle came just after and Insmouth somehow clawed three invaluable points off this tough, tough title contender derby!

Final score: Peregrinos (8) - Insmouth Cheetahs (3) 1-2 (Rafael Abreu 78; Leo Furtado 36, 47)
Man of the Match: Luciano Prado (Peregrinos)

Post Match Interview: Peregrinos manager FulchesterUnited was obviously disappointed with the outcome but still found some time to answer a couple of questions. He pulled no punches about the result and rued bad luck: "We trained well, we prepared well but sometimes in football you just get slapped in the face. Today was that day where nothing has gone our way." Still, he was upbeat about the future considering this was the first loss in the league for his team: "But it's still early in the season and plenty of twists and turns to go and this team will be pushing all the way."

Campeonato Série A Match Day 14 results:

Red Onions (4) - Carvetii FC (181) 2-1
Qingnianlu City (108.) - Alexandra County (37) 0-2
Cf Craiovitza (456) - The Rockets (23) 0-2

The derby win means Insmouth were now the only team yet to taste defeat in the league and sat on the top two points clear of champions Red Onions and three ahead of Peregrinos, who slipped down to third. All the teams below won their fixtures and maintained their positions:

1. Insmouth...........__ 38 33-6
2. Red Onions............ 36 33-6
3. Peregrinos............. 35 28-10
4. Homeboyz FC.._____ 32 28-9
5. Alexandra Countyw 31 25-10
6. The Rockets....____ 28 23-10

Insmouth Gazette Pundits

Time for our pundits section. With another title contender derby this round and just two of them giving us a correct prediction for it, there was some movement in the chart. Previous leader colins70 was able to return to the top spot, overtaking andyoz by a single point. AberdeenAngels and jpjjpj caught up with mackfishy and all three now share 6th place. Since Njidda, taoheedovic and tellofrosh haven't featured with predictions for a while, we'll exclude them from the table for the time being - however they are welcome to return at any point. Let's see how the leaderboard looks after Match Day 14:

1. colins70............164pts
2. andyoz.........__ 163pts
3. wally............__ 140pts
4. ironpsycho....__ 135pts
5. scotty1962..___ 127pts
6. jpjjpj............... 120pts
6. AberdeenAngels 120pts
6. mackfishy......._ 120pts
9. lawtons11.....__ 111pts
10. Tstuff......____ 104pts
11. aknight2000..... 90pts
12. ozzymac........... 83pts

Even though Insmouth already dropped out of the Brazilian Cup, we will respect those who made it to this prestigious stage of the competition and cover it for you. Tomorrow are the Semi-Finals of the tournament and our pundits will be predicting both matches:

Brazilian Cup Semi-Finals
CF Andorinha de Penhasco (77) - Red Onions (4)
Peregrinos (8) - Alexandra County (37)
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