SDFC 2 St Colmcille’s 2
Spartak over 35’s and St Colmcilles played out another drawn match with the same scoreline as the previous encounter 3 weeks ago. On this occasion the home side were unlucky not to come away with a win as on balance it was deserved.
Spartak started brightly again and aided by a strong breeze were well on top in the opening stages. St Colmcilles seemed to struggle with the SDFC formation and a few early chances were created. The first scorable chance came to Frank McNamee who was put through after a neat one-two with Rory Campbell but a tame shot was easily saved. Thereafter Ken Byrne had a very good long range effort tipped over and Rory Campbell just failed to connect with an excellent Aaron Doran cross.
The deadlock was broken when a stonewall penalty for handball was expertly converted by Paul Burke. Shortly afterwards Spartak went two up when a pintpoint cross from Tony Kavanagh was powerfully headed in by Shay Carr. St Colmcilles made the odd break in the first half but never really threatened the goal.
The second half saw St Colmcilles gradually get on top and apply a lot of pressure on the Spartak defence. With Dave Mohan sidelined through a first half injury, Fintan Grace, Paul Burke and Greg Callan were defending resolutely and despite having a lot of the ball the opposition were denied any clear cut chances. This changed when a harmless cross was not held by Jimmy Browne and in the ensuing scramble to retrieve the ball he was deemed by the referee to have fouled the striker. A harsh decision but a penalty was awarded and converted.
With the game at 2-1, a harmless ball over the top was let go by the Spartak defensive line as there were at least four St Colmcilles players clearly offside. To the disbelief of everyone including the opposition the referee did not blow his whistle and the striker naturally took advantage to score an easy goal.
To Spartak’s credit, despite this set back the team rallied and a half chance was created by Barry Crowe for Tony Kavanagh. Derek Doran and Aaron Doran were combining well on the left and causing some problems. In injury time St Colmcilles proved the value of having a player on the post for corners when a Frank McNamee header was cleared off the line to deny Spartak the 3 points.
Overall it was another good performance from Spartak. Defensively solid, working hard in midfield and creating chances up front. Similar efforts will no doubt produce deserving results in forthcoming matches.
Footnote: It must be mentioned that the performance of the referee had both teams infuriated. He did not get off to a good start by being 10 minutes late (for the second match in a row). During the game there was such indecision that any decisions that were reached seemed to be based on which team shouted the loudest (which was invariably St Colmcilles). On several occasions obvious yellow card offences were ignored and it was fortunate that the game did not spiral out of control or that a player did not get seriously injured.
The spartak panel was Jimmy Browne, Tony Kavanagh, Dave Mohan, Paul Burke, Greg Callan, Ken Byrne, Derek Doran, Barry Crowe, Frank McNamee, Rory Campbell, Mark Byrne, Shay Carr, Leon David, Aaron Doran, Jason Doyle, Fintan Grace
