Play opened brightly with a good run down the left from Darryl Lawrie which ended in a corner after his centre was kicked away to safety. Gordie Macklin sent a good cross over which Lawrie struck well but was equally well saved by the visiting keeper as he dived to his right. A powerful shot from Lorenzo Arcari in the 17th. minute was on the way home but got deflected for another corner. From the resulting centre, via Pat Rohla, it was L. Arcari who was first to the ball but his header went just over the crossbar. Macklin made another forage down the right and won another corner kick for Rohla to continue his practice. The corner landed back at Macklin who sent over a hard cross-cum-shot which Jimmy Butler just failed to connect with and it was again deflected for a corner. Macklin put Lawrie away down the left who sent his effort across the face of the goal for a dead ball.
It was one way traffic but Fort mounted their first attack in the 36th. minute and their right wing cross ended when an attacker headed narrowly wide of the mark. With five minutes of the half remaining a powerful shot came from Gene Crowley. A scary moment in the Classics defence came minutes later after a right wing cross was mis-hit by Randy Hosler and the ball did a summersault into the hands of a grateful Dean Herbert. The first half ended all square.
The second half began in similar vein with the home side doing all the pushing and the visitors doing their best to frustrate with their cleverly executed offside trap. In the 65th. minute a delightful long range pass from Danny Jensen put Butler on route to goal. With the United defenders struggling to ride on the crest of his wake, he cooly slipped the ball home with a low shot to the right of the despairing dive of the keeper. Five minutes later Butler was the provider as he slipped a through ball to Macklin on the right. Unselfishly, Macklin slipped the ball past the keeper and across the goalmouth to a waiting Lawrie who had the simplest of tasks to slide the ball into the empty net to make it 2-0 to the hosts. Three minutes later a right wing attack by Fort witnessed Jensen miss the ball, followed by Herbert who attempted to scoop the ball away but he missed it too and an attacker at the back post headed wide when he really should have pulled a goal back.
With 18 minutes remaining one of the visiting centre backs made a complete pig's ear of his attempted sweeping clearance almost on the centre spot. Ever the opportunist, Butler latched onto the mistake and picked his pocket like taking candy from a baby. He went on a staright line run towards goal which ended one-on-one with the keeper. Butler again finished the move with his usual aplomb to seal another impressive win for the Classics. Minutes later a free kick on the edge of the area by Rohla was well placed but the keeper got down well to avert the danger. With time running out a short corner, from Rohla to Hosler, was hit across the goalmouth with power and accuracy but Lawrie allowed the ball to skim his head instead of making a direct contact. If the build up was worthy of Ronaldo the finish was definitely Messi. Butler made another effort which looked clumsy but it was actually a great attempt at reaching a difficult spinning ball. Another two efforts were attempted, one at both ends, which both went wide. The new year has only seen the Classics give up one goal - and it was pointed out that Herbert was NOT in the nets for that one.
Final Score: Classics 3 Fort United 0 (0-0)
Stats
MWG: J. Butler
Crap Award: R. Hosler
550th. Appearance: J. Eden