Rush 4, Spartak 0
It seems this game was not destined to go well for the Sky Blues.
Numerous cry offs and no shows made for a struggle to field a side, notwithstanding that only 5 points separated the sides before the game. Additionally, Spartak had a game in hand on second placed Rush, who had succumbed to a 3-1 defeat in Marlay earlier in the season.
Luckily, club stalwarts Stuart Love, Dave Browne and Tom O’Driscoll travelled to fill some of the gaps.
Worse was to follow. The referee awarded the first two ludicrously offside goals, while missing a really bad tackle on Stephen Barr. The offside goals were not of the usual few disputed marginal yards, in each case the home forward, assuming the whistle would blow, had to be urged to carry on by his quicker thinking team mates.
For the second goal, the Rush player was not within 30 yards of a Spartak defender, but allowed to carry on and score. Everyone present assumed the ref was waiting for the player to touch the ball before whistling.
Naturally, goals change games, and finding themselves unjustly two down early in the second period, anxiety and bad decision making by Spartak compounded the situation. Sean Doyle missed a couple of opportunities to claw Spartak back into the game, Mick Leslie forced the keeper into a good save, but, despite the efforts of all the home side took advantage of errors to add two legitimate goals, albeit the result of sloppy defending.
The Sky Blues, to their credit, stuck gamely to the impossible task, driven on by Leo Behan in midfield and the energy of Sean Doyle and the indefatigable Mick Leslie, but could not do much against such impossible odds.
The refereeing standards in the LSL have really plummeted.
Form Report
Greg Byrne 7 Chris Hogan 5 Dave Browne 6 Sean Doyle 7 Stephen Barr 6 Stuart Love 6 Andre Gabriel 5 Mick Leslie 6 Leo Behan 7 Tom O’Driscoll 5 Kevin Murphy 5
Sub: Kevin Loftus 5
