Denny Premier B
Mastergeeha FC- 3
Fenit Samphires-1
Bill Mullins
Our seniors experienced their first league loss of the season when we traveled to play Mastergeeha on a cold Sunday morning last weekend. The pitch was in fantastic condition despite the cold weather as we looked to continue our good form. We started brightly and controlled possession early on with our strikers Ger Mac and Dano seeing a lot of the ball. This allowed Bill Mullins and Sean Foley to attack at will out wide and we pinned the hosts back for the opening exchanges. Peter McCarthy and David O Sullivan were busy in midfield as we continued to probe for an opening, but we couldn’t create anything clear cut. The referee could have given us a penalty early on as the ball seemed to strike a defenders hand as it headed for the net, but he waved play on. Midway through the half the hosts were reduced to ten as a defender received his second yellow. Despite this Mastergeeha battled well and took the lead when they finished from a corner, which allowed them to sit back and defend for the remainder of the half.
We started brightly again in the second period with our back four of Ian McCarthy, Darren Lynch, Ruairi Kelly and John Moran rarely threatened allowing them to start attack after attack. Mastergeeha’s game plan was obvious as they defended deep and engaged in blatant timewasting at every opportunity. We got the equaliser we deserved when Bill finished after a nice passing move put him through on goal. It looked like we would kick on from here but our frustration at our opponents tactics started to get the better of us as the referee continued to give some dubious decisions. Our frustration got the better of us when we were reduced to ten men also, but we still kept pressing for a winner. We went 2-1 down late in the half as we conceded from a quick counter attack which meant we needed to throw caution to the wind and press for an equaliser. We created a few chances with Peter hitting the crossbar from distance and Ger went close as well. While we pushed forward we were leaving ourselves a bit open at the back and the hosts scored a third late on when they finished from close range following another break.
It’s important now that we learn from this game and play with more intensity and determination in the future. It looked at times as though we expected our opponents to roll over easily but this wasn’t the case. There’s no doubting our ability and if we get our attitude on the pitch right we will only get better as the season unfolds.