Injured striker Bill Braggington scored two as visitors Dukla Danzig beat Red-Blue Busters for the first time in five attempts.
“The win for them was always going to happen, though I’d have preferred it to happen later rather than sooner,” said Busters manager Damien, “The first time we met back in season 18, we held them to a 0-0 draw, but they had 4 chances to our 1. Then the third time we met, in season 19 we held them to a 1-1 draw and they had 3 chances to our 1. Even the 3-2 win we had over them the fourth time we met was fortunate. They had 9 chances to our 4. We can’t really have any complaints.”
A complaint Damien will have though, is with goalkeeper Alexeij Alexandrov. In the five games he’s played in this season (all in the league) he has conceded 8 goals from 15 chances the opposition has had, giving him a save percentage this season of just 47%.
“I don’t know what’s happened to him,” continued Damien, “Since he joined us back in season 17, he’s continually had a save percentage of over 70%, including 78% back in season 18 when we made it to round 7 of the cup – thanks to him. It doesn’t make any sense what has happened to him, and we’ve been lucky until the previous two games that we haven’t lost more games than we have done.”
The loss is the third game Red-Blue Busters have lost in a row, with one of the losses eliminating them from the cup in the third round – for the second consecutive season.
“I’m gutted. I expected us to be knocked out, and can’t really have too many complaints about that either, but I’d have liked us to have attacked a bit more than we did do. Losing three times in a row, I did not expect at all, especially given that we had won the first five games we played this season. To have such a turn in form is staggering.”
So what are Damien’s objectives for the season now?
“If you had asked me after the third league match, I’d have said a promotion challenge for sure. Now I’m not sure. We’re third and just a point behind second, but our next two matches are pretty tough. Win them and we could be back in the top two with Real Cataluna and Dukla Danzig facing each other in the 7th and 8th round. Lose them and we’ll be in the relegation zone. At the moment we’re two points above the relegation zone, and I think that’s a testament to how tight this league is that there’s just five points between 1st and 6th.
“At the moment I’m not that positive or optimistic about our chances this season, and can see us getting relegated if Alexandrov doesn’t improve soon.”
|