Catania Review: Swindled out of 2 points..

By: Matthew | October 27th, 2008

Frustrating is definatly a term that springs to mind after this weekends performance.. Not frustrating in the sense that the boys did not perform, but rather that we were desperately unlucky not to take maximum reward for our efforts.

As i stated below, it was a match that both teams really needed to win. It did not matter so much in terms of league position but more so that come the end of year both teams may come to rue points dropped. For me this was definately the case for la Robur. The first 10 minutes of the match saw a Siena that had been missing at Genoa a week earlier and further showed the gulf in home and away performances for the side. Massimo Maccarone was desperately unlucky as only brilliance from the Argentine Albino Bizzarri in the Catania goal stopped Siena romping right from the start. By halftime Bizzarri had racked up a neat pile of quality stops to his name and the Siena faithful’s joy in the performance was turning into frustration. Ghezzal and Maccarone had thrown the kitchen sink at the Catania goal, and it seemed somewhat unfair that Maccarone would leave the game in the 52nd minute, still not on the scoresheet this season. His replacement Calaio’ however was aiming to take his chance after finding himself a regular ‘bencher’ at Siena, and finally he got the breakthrough with a well placed header as he was totally unmarked.

You would be excused if you were to believe that the game was now as good as over. Siena had had most of the game, Zenga’s men rarely ventured forward with any real threat and Siena’s defensive home record boasted of three consecutive cleansheets. But that seemed to be fate’s cue and five minutes after giving the bianconeri the lead they deserved, Calaio’ gave the ball away far to easy and Paolucci, after racing into the area, went down under the merest of touches from Curci. The result was Giuseppe Mascara grabbing a share of the points by sending Curci the wrong way from the spot.

Although the boys really came together on Saturday and not only took the game to high-flying Catania, they dominated it, the sense around the club is that of lingering frustration. With a mid-week away trip to the San Siro to face the newly rejuvenated Milan seeming to only further our poor away form, having dropped the two points will play on the mind of the players.. that is what Giampaolo has to get out of their heads.