The Mighty Shane suffered its first heavy defeat in a long time against strong opposition in Daan, who themselves bounced back from losing their first two games of the season.
After an excellent 2017 defensively and an opening day clean sheet in the win over the Badgers, it was surprising to see Daan run into a 4-0 lead by the half hour mark, effectively ending any chance of a Shane comeback.
The Shane back line was repeatedly hit by long balls and the pace of Daan’s strikers, and were seemingly unable to cope with the speed of their counter attacks.
By half time, the score was 6-1, heads were down and some may have been fearing the worst, conceding even more and suffering humiliation by full time.
The Shane boys responded though and after some halftime words, changes to the line up and a willingness to show what they were made of, the second half saw a huge improvement. Shane got back onto the front foot and consistently built attacks to trouble the Daan defense and keeper. By scoring the only goal after half time, Shane “won” the second half and left the pitch with their heads held high. However, much better is needed in the next game, and the lads will be itching to recover with a win in another very tough fixture against Taipei Eagles next time out. Positive performances on the day came firstly from Patrick Swandell, again showing great composure and continuing his remarkable penalty run by tucking away a spot kick in each half. Substitutes Nils de Turkheim and Bartek Ryś were excellent when they came on in the full back positions and made a huge difference.
Jamie Smith and Paul Warren really upped their game in the second half and dominated the midfield for us, with Paul really unlucky not to score too. And another player who's second half was excellent and helped us win a penalty was Brian McGuinness, looking in great form at the moment.