Skip to content

Cowichan LMG rebuild gets off to a good start

Tie with Fernwood Town ‘encouraging’ for Div. 1 team
13586693_web1_180919-CCI-Cowichan-LMG-1_1
Veteran Govinda Innes scored Cowichan’s lone goal in a season-opening 1-1 draw against Fernwood Town on Friday night. (Kevin Rothbauer/Citizen)

The first game of Cowichan LMG’s rebuilding era went pretty well.

Cowichan opened the 2018-19 Vancouver Island Soccer League Div. 1 season on Friday night with a new look and a new style of play, against a new opponent, and played to a 1-1 tie.

“We played great,” Cowichan head coach Glen Martin said following the draw with recently promoted Fernwood Town. “High energy. We played as a team. We just didn’t have the finishing touch.”

LMG dominated play and created a ton of chances to score, especially as time ticked down and they clearly weren’t content to play to the tie, and Martin heard a lot of positive feedback from the fans afterward.

“It’s very encouraging,” the coach said.

RELATED: Cowichan LMG taking a new direction

Martin called up six players from Cowichan’s U21 team coached by former LMG stalwart Tyler Hughes, and five of them saw action.

“They’ve got speed and enthusiasm,” Martin said. “They’re well-coached, so they know what to do. The U21 program is already paying off.”

Cowichan kept Fernwood pinned in their own end for several minutes at the start of the match.

“For 10 minutes, they didn’t have the ball in our end, and then they went down and scored.”

Fernwood opened the scoring on a questionable goal that several players and fans felt should have been called a handball. Govinda Innes, already an eight-year veteran of the Div. 1 team at just 24 years old, responded for Cowichan.

“It was nice to get that first goal out of the way,” Martin said. “I thought we were going to get another goal out of that game, but it didn’t work out.”

Martin was pleased with the performance and is excited about how the season will play out for his club.

“Overall, the guys played well,” he said. “It was a solid team effort. They passed the ball to each other well. If we can keep creating chances, the goals will come. If we can get lots of chances to score, that will be good.”

Cowichan will visit Gorge this Saturday to play for a newly created cup that pits the defending league champs (Cowichan) against the defending Jackson Cup champs (Gorge). The game will not count in the league standings. Cowichan’s next league game will be played at home on Sept. 29 against Comox Valley United.