12.11.16
Spartak 5 Earl Celtic 7
No, it wasn’t a rugby match despite the strange scoreline!
Its certainly one of the oddest matches seen in Marlay for many years. It looked as if each back 4 had never met their teammates previously, as every attack by both sides looked like producing a score.
Spartak, apart from scoring five goals, missed a number of chances; crosses by Mick Leslie were headed off target by Leo Bradley and Shane Cunningham; Conor Callis fired wide when clean through; Ciaran Keane fired wide from a good position.
Leo Bradley fired a decent hat trick, and Mick Leslie scored a neat goal. Gary Bridges’ long range effort was the pick of the bunch for the Sky Blues. Spartak found themselves 4-3 down at half time, and Earl made it five very early in the second period; Spartak struck back and scored twice to equalise; indeed at this point it seemed there could only be one winner, but a break by Earl saw a very soft goal conceded, even by the standards of the day, and Earl added one more as they surged past a bewildered Sky Blues defence.
It is probably better to draw a veil over the concession of so many scores; in Spartak’s case the defending was deplorable from front to back.
A bad day at the office.
Form Report
Bobby Hayes 6 Chris Hogan 5 Dave O’Kelly 4 Liam Caffey 4 Cian Stenson 4 Eric Barber 5 Shane Cunningham 5 Gary Bridges 6 Ciaran Keane 4 Leo Bradley 7 Mick Leslie 7
Subs: Conor Callis 5 Shane McInerney 5 Sean Molloy 5
