Many Aljezurense supporters followed the team up the mountain in hope that the league title would be settled, but alas Monchiquensie had other ideas.
In a scrappy match made far worse by a deplorable referee, Aljezurense looked jaded or had already thought the title was won. Monchiquense played some pretty football but the finishing touch was fortunately lacking, or they could well have been at least 3 goals up before halftime.
Missing the injured Lawrence 18 in midfield, Fabio 5 was not supported enough by his fellow players with Serra 28 battling against an eager home side that were able to run at the Aljezurense defence.
A game with a view
Against the run of play Aljezurense went ahead after a good move that ended with Casinhas striking home a rebound from the keeper. This seemed to put some spark into the visitors and several chances went missing from, Joao 7, (starting the match – a first for some time) Jardel 21 and Casinhas 10.
This period of the game saw Aljezurense more dominant and they should have gone in at halftime 3 goals to the better but for slack forward play.
In the second half Aljezurense sat back and the home side took control, far too many chances went begging only through poor finishing, otherwise the home team would have wrapped the game up.
Noel 17 was red carded for 2 yellow card tackles, the second from a laughable dive that conned the Referee again – this put severe pressure on the defence in which Kieran 15 played an important role in gaining a point.
This was probably the worst performance of the season with Aljezurense still needing 1 point to ensure that they are crowned champions. Noel 17 will now be side lined for the match against Serrano in 3 weeks time, although Serrano need to win by a very large margin at least to give themselves a chance in overhauling Aljezurense, but of course we still have to visit Bensafrim.
The next game is Serrano at home on 24th March, I apologise for misleading people that it was next week