Courtesy: Futsal England


So Close for Sheffield

Sheffield Hallam narrowly missed out on their first victory in European competition tonight in Sheffield, losing 6-4 to Albanian team SK Tirana.

The first game in the UEFA Futsal Cup 2004/05 preliminary round group took place in front of a large home crowd at the EIS in Sheffield. Both teams started slowly but it was Tirana who settled in to their game more quickly and took the lead early in the half.

The Albanian team soon built on their great start scoring a further three goals to take a 4-0 lead into the half time break, which could have been more if it weren’t for the usual top class performance from Hallam and England goalkeeper Graham Smith.

The half-time team talk from coach John Gray clearly gave the Hallam team the jolt they needed as they started the second half with much more purpose coming close to scoring on several occasions before finally giving the crowd something to cheer just under 2 minutes into the second half with their first goal in the UEFA Futsal Cup.

The new found confidence was evident in the Sheffield team as they continued their second half revival scoring another quick goal one minute later.

Tirana still looked dangerous, causing Hallam problems on the break but the home team battled well and earned their third and fourth goals 10 minutes into the second half giving the home crowd hope that they could now turn almost certain defeat into victory.

Sadly for Hallam fans the hope was short lived as the Albanian side summoned the strength to deliver two knockout blows late in the game, leaving the Sheffield team to focus on their final game of the round against the Bulgarian team, MAG Varna on Sunday.

Goals:

5' Llagami (0-1)
9' Mullai (0-2)
12' Llagami (0-3)
17' Resuli (0-4)
21' Goddard (1-4)
22' Hall (2-4)
32' Corran (3-4)
33' Ebbutt (4-4)
35' Llagami (4-5)
39' Hysa (4-6)



Attendance : 164