Coventry Evening Telegraph, 23rd February 1999
| Liverpool again proved to be Riga's bogey team as they pulled
off a deserved 3-1 National League Division one victory.
Riga drove home along the M6 wondering where it all went wrong and where their season will finish. "We played like we were a long way from home with half a tank of gas and no money,"commented a disappointed captain Tom Young. Things had however started a lot differently. A long first set saw each side take the lead, only for the other to catch up and overtake. Eventually some fine serving from Riga's Pete Abraham forced errors from the Liverpool reception which their attackers compounded. The resulting Riga spurt to 14-8 was sufficient to carry them towards the set but not before the home side had staged a revival. Liverpool's determination was a real threat to their visitors who appeared more in tune with a friendly than the cut and thrust of the league. Indeed Liverpool's spirit has not only seen them beat league champions Aquila but also reach the Cup Final with a resounding 3-0 thumping of Polonia. So a second set defeat for Riga was disappointing but hardly surprising in the circumstances. At one point Pool were leading 10-2 before it was Riga's turn to show mettle as young John Gilling and Richard Meade helped haul the score back to a more respectable 15-9. The third set became the turning point of the match. At 12-7 to Riga, the team looked to have re-established themselves in the game and in particular the block was now forming a formidable first line of defence. However, Liverpool were not about to give up and as their visitors failed to press home their advantage, the home team began to claw their way back. In the ding-dong battle that followed Riga created chance after chance to win the set, until finally two unforced errors in a row consigned them to defeat 17-16. The fourth set became a mirror image of the first, as the lead changed hands constantly. This time however it was Liverpool who made the break to lead 13-9. To Riga that four-point difference assumed mountainous proportions. Still they stuck to their task and again created chances to reduce the deficit. In the end, as with the third set, two simple errors handed the set to Liverpool 15-9 and the match. "Liverpool have improved a lot since we last played them and all credit to them," said Young. "We didn't play well consistently and we have to look to ourselves for the reasons for that. We had our chances and didn't take them. We've still got the chances to make this a great season for us. We've just got to make sure we take those." |