23.3.14
Spartak 0, Ballybrack 5
The scoreline here did not reflect the balance of play, as the Spartak players ruefully reflected at the final whistle.
It was a bad day at the office for the Sky Blues. Steve Grier suffered a painful, and season ending, knee injury following a tackle which brought a lenient yellow card; Neil McGowan struck the post with a penalty at 0-1 after Paul Kinsella was taken down; and was then knocked out, in full view of the referee, during an off the ball incident as the visitors scored their second from a corner kick.
A fine header had given the visitors the lead; and their third was also of high quality. As Spartak pushed on to try to reduce arrears, they were severely punished on the break.
But the overriding feeling from this game was what might have been with some rigorous refereeing. Spartak were left, literally, to lick their wounds.
Form Report
Jason Northey 5 Sean Doyle 6 Paul Kinsella 5 Martin Costello 6 Steve Grier 6 Fergus Burke 6 Neil McGowan 6 Niall Hanratty 5 Derek Ruxton 6 David Kernan 7 Steve Walsh 5
Subs: Ken Buckley 5 Mick Leslie 5 Jeff Gamble 5
