The Nitzaners off to a flier in their journey of discovery

VFOOTBALL IN their inaugural Inter Shul 11-a-side match, BES Nitzan emerged victorious in a hard-fought contest against newly-formed Mill Hill East community.

MHE, having already played a number of games together started well, playing some neat football in the middle of the park.

The Nitzaners, being sponsored by Broza Plumbers, soon got into their stride, putting together flowing passing moves of their own, but were unable to properly test the keeper with Joni Kleiman, Ezra Dulberg and Dan Cohen spurning some half-chances.

With Danny Feuer and Jonny Ison, rocks at the centre of the Nitzan defence, clearing everything that came their way, the teams went in 0-0 at half time.

Some brilliant tactical changes at start of the second half did not take long to take effect.

Clever footwork from Leor Harel on the left wing took the ball round two MHE defenders to the byline. He cut back inside and laid the ball to the edge of the area to the oncoming Dulberg, now up front, who leathered a bullet into the top corner off the underside of the bar leaving MHE keeper (brother of Nitzan’s well-known Rafi Saltman) with no chance. A goal of the season contender! 1-0 Nitzan.

A few minutes later a flowing counter attacking move started with Dulberg picking the ball up on the halfway line and carrying it forward, before laying it on a plate for Cohen to place into the far corner and put some distance between the two teams.

It was all one way after that and Man of the Match Dulberg put the game beyond any doubt with another brilliant goal, lifting the ball over the MHE keeper to drop beautifully under the bar and put the Nitzan boys 3-0 up.

Leor Harel, Steven Kaye and Cohen all forced the keeper into good saves in the last 15 and Kleiman had the ball in the back of the net, but was ruled out by an offside flag.

Heroic defending from everyone and a blinding performance from Josh Schwart in goal did not allow MHE any sort of hold in the game.

A shot off the inside of the post that trickled along the line before being cleared by Ben Judah was the only real scare.

A superb debut performance by the Nitzan players with hardly a foot put wrong all game as they started their 11-a-side journey and are now looking forward to the next challenge.

Dulberg leathered bullet of a shot into top corner of net