30.8.12
Firhouse 18s 4, Spartak 4
A return to a regular friendly destination saw the young locals take advantage of some very flaky defending to lead 2-0 and 3-1. Mick Costello’s deflected shot looped over the keeper to reduce arrears and Neil McGowan’s header struck the crossbar before being turned in by a defender to leave it 3-2 at the break.
The early exchanges were something of a horror show for the Sky Blues defence – mind you those Firhouse Carmel young lads were “lightning quick”! Distribution from the back was laboured, slow and mostly inaccurate while the midfield struggled to get a grip on proceedings. Bobby Hayes added to the early confusion with some poor kicking but also made a few decent stops as the Spartak defence went missing.
The threat of monetary punishment had the desired effect and the second half saw a distinct improvement.
Conor Maguire and Derek Ruxton had injected some urgency into the proceedings aided by Jeff Gamble, Neil McGowan and Lee Norton as Spartak launched a series of attacks.
Messrs Maguire and Ruxton both scored good goals to put Spartak ahead and many other chances were created.
Poor midfield marking by Steve Walsh and Mick Costello saw Aodhan McCahill easily by-passed for the Firhouse Carmel equaliser.
Both sides had chances to win it, but each spurned a couple of opportunities.
Form Report:
Bobby Hayes 6 Chris Hogan 5 Barry Maguire 5 Keith Kelly 5 Martin Costello 5 Mick Costello 5 Jeff Gamble 7 Aodhan McCahill 5 Dara Comerford 5 Conor Maguire 7 Steve Walsh 5 Derek Ruxton 7 Neil McGowan 6 Steve Grier 6 Dermot Dooley 6 Jason Northey 6 Lee Dunne 5 Lee Norton 6
