The greater experience of a fast-improving Eastern Suburbs side proved too great a hurdle for the youthful Metro combination to overcome when the teams clashed in the Northern Premier League on May 7, the visitors prevailing 3-1 in the Albie Turner Field encounter.
While the better team deservedly won, the beaten side certainly had cause to grumble about a couple of referee Kevin Stoltencamp's decisions. While the official is one of the better whistle-blowers on the circuit, it's fair to say this wasn't the most memorable performance of his career to date.
Before his intervention, however, Metro had enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, with Shane Campbell squandering two glorious opportunities to open the scoring, blazing wildly and waywardly when a composed, clinical finish, on either occasion, would have rewarded the inventive play of the impressive Matthieu Thebault, the lone home team player to impress throughout.
While Suburbs' Riki Van Steeden had seen Craig Wilkins turn his low drive to safety in the fourth minute, and Peter Wild had headed a Richard Beeston free-kick over the crossbar at the other end a minute later, Campbell's spurning of openings in the ninth and nineteenth minutes left the speedster holding his head in frustration, knowing full well he should have done better with his attempts to break the deadlock.
Metro were further frustrated when penalty claims were turned away by referee Stoltencamp, when Wild was sent tumbling by Matt Harvey's challenge, while the intervention of Jonathan Perry prevented Wild from finishing off the creativity of Gerard Smith and Campbell in the 24th minute.
On the stroke of half-time, Suburbs broke the deadlock, much too Metro's anger. Van Steeden literally fended off Smith's challenge as the pair disputed possession in midfield, but the Metro captain got up and came back at the former Football Kingz player, although not in a manner deemed acceptable by the official.
While the home team harangued the referee, Hoani Edwards quickly sized up the situation and took a swift free-kick. Andrew Webber was alert to his team-mate's invention, and rewarded it by scooting past a distracted defence before deftly flicking the ball past a stunned Wilkins, who, like many of his team-mates, in light of Van Steeden's challenge to win possession initially, was still wondering why a free-kick had been awarded at all.
After Wilkins pawed out a long-range dipping effort from Stewart Bola, Suburbs doubled their lead in the 33rd minute, with an already aggrieved Metro even more so following this incident. Claims for a free-kick by the home side were ignored by referee Stoltencamp, and while he weathered their ire, the impressive Shaun Easthope charged down the right and clipped a cross into Bola's path.
Suburbs' leading goal scorer showed exactly why he holds such status with a superbly taken goal, volleying home in fine style from twenty yards past the advancing Wilkins to leave the visitors well and truly in the box seat, and the home team with their minds more on the injustices inflicted upon them rather than going about rectifying the situation.
For the rest of the half, Suburbs ruled the roost, taking full advantage of Metro's bewilderment to carve them apart on a number of occasions. Van Steeden poked a shot past the post following Webber's through ball, with the scorer of the first goal only denied a second for the evening by Wilkins, after Duncan Clark had been caught napping.
Van Steeden - Suburbs' coach Billy Harris has certainly found his ideal position by playing him in a midfield role - turned up on the right wing next, as Metro stumbled on towards half-time. The home team were fortunate to scramble clear the resulting danger, as Webber somehow failed to turn home his team-mate's telling cross.
Bradley Newall's spectacular bicycle kick attempt, with the last kick of the half, offered hope for the natives that all was not lost, but the early stages of the second spell suggested those prospects were faint, as Metro's defence appeared to still be reeling from Coach Roger Woolmer's tongue-lashing five minutes after the resumption.
In that time, Suburbs should have well and truly wrapped up the points, with Edwards squandering a great opportunity to score - by his standards, a poor finish, and his body language immediately afterwards said he knew as much.
And Bola's thirty-yard effort, one which a confident Wilkins would have caught, was slapped away by the goalkeeper, as Metro wobbled on the ropes. The knockout blow came in the 55th minute, when Easthope went down in the penalty area under the challenge of Clark. Referee Stoltencamp pointed to the spot, from where Bola despatched his eighth goal of the season.
But for Wilkins, Suburbs' 3-0 lead would have been further bolstered either side of the hour mark. The goalkeeper saved well at the feet of Webber, then turned a twenty-yarder from Mark Webber to safety, after Easthope and Simon George had linked to good effect to prise open Metro's rearguard once more.
The one bright note in a decidedly off-key Metro performance was Thebault. Having curled an effort wide early in the second spell, after Campbell had broken down the right, the former Paris St. Germain youngster produced some delightful wing-play and an absolute gem of a cross in the seventieth minute which proved simply too good for Newall to convert - the striker, rather than the ball, ended up in the net!
Back came Suburbs, with Wilkins twice thwarting Bola, on the first occasion with a part of his anatomy so tender that not even the application of the magic sponge can bring about an instant remedy at the best of times!!
The injury break was most welcome, because the game was being played in helter-skelter fashion, with little structured play in evidence. The respite gave both teams a chance to regroup, and it was Metro who made the most of the opportunity.
The final fifteen minutes saw them pressing on for a goal and more if they could get them. After Wild had been thwarted by the combined efforts of Richard Mills and Graham Pearce, the Metro striker breached the offside trap and produced a delightful finish ten minutes from time to give the home team hope.
Sadly for them, that's all it proved to be, although had Mills not gratefully grabbed a Clark header and a Ben Dundas pile driver, Suburbs may have been hanging onto the three points a little more nervously come the full-time whistle.
As it was, they were worthy victors against a young side which, Thebault apart, didn't play to anything like its potential, regardless of the referee's decisions and their impact on proceedings.
Metro learnt that, against a team of Suburbs' calibre and experience, they can ill-afford to under-perform. On this occasion, they were dutifully punished for doing so.

Lineups:

Metro: Wilkins; R. Beeston (booked, 65), Gray, Clark, J. Beeston (Kubicki, 67); Campbell (Beckham, 89), Dundas, Smith, Thebault; Newall, Wild

Suburbs: Mills; Harvey, Perry, Pearce, M. Webber; Easthope, George, Van Steeden, Edwards; Bola, A. Webber

Referee: Kevin Stoltencamp

Print this page