September 14, 2022...In Just Five Games, The Majestic Mo Babouli Has Breathed New Life Into The Nine Stripes
(from York United FC website)

IN JUST FIVE GAMES, THE MAJESTIC MO BABOULI HAS BREATHED NEW LIFE INTO THE NINE STRIPES  

The attacker has managed four goals in four starts and gelled instantly with his new team-mates.

In the end, it was all about the magisterial Mo Babouli who perfumed his artistry to inspire 
a deserved 3-1 home win over FC Edmonton at York Lions Stadium last Friday night.

A brace and a hockey assist were enough to earn him the Man of the Match gong and the points 
have breathed life into the club’s faint hopes for a postseason spot.

Babouli is now on four goals in five matches and his influence on his teammates is changing the soul 
of the Nine Stripes.

This was corroborated by versatile defender Tass Mourdoukoutas when he appeared at the post-match 
conference.

"You look at players like Mo Babouli who have come in. One of the experienced players in this league 
and probably one of the best players in this league, in my opinion. I'm not saying it's all on him 
as the reason why we're scoring a lot of goals but he definitely is a big contributor," 
said the Australian import.

"He brings players in and around him and he makes the team better. I think he helps the team click 
and there's a lot of other talented players around him: players we brought in, players we've had that 
are rediscovering form or coming back from injury like Seba [Gutierrez] who have come in and scored 
last week, affecting the game off the bench. So we've got depth now."

"The players have to fight for spots at the end of the day and that's football. The competition 
is breeding a greater kind of group performance now. You need to put in a performance otherwise 
you might not start the next game so it's showing, I think."

It was the sort of performance that will send strong signals to the rest of teams who will be visiting 
York Lions Stadium before the climax of the season.

Martin Nash was pleased with the output from his players, who offered cohesion, urgency and energy 
when required.

Before kick-off, The Gaffer challenged them to turn their home venue into a Waterloo for teams, 
having lost six times in front of the York United faithful. Slowly, they're getting there.

''It [the performance] was good. I thought we were quite comfortable [in the] first half. It was 
a good half and we could have scored a couple, to be honest," he said at the post-match conference.

''We had a couple of half-chances and you'd like to have seen one of them go in. We started 
the second half really well, got our second goal and then I thought we kind of relaxed a little 
bit. So that was a bit frustrating. They scored and that kind of woke us back up. We could have 
scored a few more."

York United dominated ball possession with 51%, outshot Edmonton 15-12, including 10-4 in shots on goal.

Nash added: "There were a couple games recently where we haven't come out on the front foot so it was 
great to see us do that in both halves today. We scored early in the first and second which was big 
and when we play on the front foot we're a dangerous team."

Up next for York United is another home fixture against second-bottom HFX Wanderers on Friday night.

Ridwan Ibrahim Asante

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