Central basically self destructed. Army may not be Barcelona-esque but they are consistent, more like Keegan-esque. What you see is what you get and their game plan is to score more than the other team, so it doesn't matter if you concede 3, you just need to score 4. I was standing with Jan-Michael Williams for the first 15 minutes and he was commenting on how good Centrals passing and possession was, both last night and against St Anns on Tuesday. At that point, Mr Snell and Mr Hitchcock, the Pro League's seminar presenters must have thought the League leaders were playing in red, such was the game mastery of Central. But, as has been the pattern, The Sharks failed to find the net.
To me, the biggest turning point was the Army sending off. This forced a more defensive formation from Army, which seemed to puzzle Central. From that point, Central were allowed loads of possession in front of a 9 man defensive wall. As against the Rangers defensive formation on Tuesday, most of Central's passing went backwards and they seemed unable to get down the flanks, run into channels or draw the defenders out to create gaps behind. No Central midfielder wanted to gamble by making a run, so for the Army back four, it was virtually a day off. The Army midfield worked very hard to thwart the Sharks midfield and, of course, the Army are masters at counter attack.
So it went. Pressure in the Sharks 18 yard box forced a mistake when Harris and Charles fluffed around instead of clearing the ball and Jorsling penalised them. Then, after Charles was punished by being substituted, new defender Weslie John, was duped into a foul in the box by Jorsling.
Central's frustrations continued with very few penetrations into the Army last third while retaining most of the possession. The third goal was a joke, as Goodridge's sliced clearance twenty feet into the air was collected by Phillip and Ref Brizan judged this a pass back and awarded a free kick to Army. There was a lot of dispute from Phillip, but the Army got their kick around 15 yards from goal and the ball was slammed home. Phillip, already frustrated, presumably produced one cuss too many and Brizan showed red.
With all subs used, Byers, who began life as a keeper, went in goal.
All in all, a job well done by Army, but Central have to recognise that they were architects of their own downfall, which effectively killed any chance of a third place finish.