Juniors drop first league points of the season in stalemate

Result: Cobh Wanderers 0-0 Riverstown/Brookelodge.

Wanderers will be kicking themselves for not taking advantage against ten man Brookelodge from the 64th minute of this game. The home side carved out chance after chance but spurned the lot and dropped points in the race for the Division 2 title. The only positive is that ‘lodge didn’t sneak a goal and rob all three points with one of the few but sometimes dangerous chances they had in the 96minutes played by the, excellent on the day, referee. Tommy Cronin had Wanderers first serious effort when he powered a header toward goal from a corner after 13 minutes. The keeper saved but fumbled and nobody capitalised on it. Cronin again got his head to a corner after 21 minutes, this time the ball went out for another corner off the defenders head. A minute later Pa Brady almost gifted the visitors the lead when his attempted clearance from the end line went straight to the forward who fluffed his lines and the ball was eventually cleared. On 26 minutes a good move saw Stoat pick out Stacky in the box but he powered the ball over the bar with his swinging leg.

Just after the half hour mark Stack took a corner from the left that ended up back at his feet. He shifted the ball and curled an effort just outside the far corner. Wanderer’s last chance of the half fell to Andy Hogan who found himself with a free header from a corner but the ball was stopped on the line and cleared from danger. In the middle of all this the manager was harshly asked to leave his post and retire to the dressing rooms. Johnsor did what he was told but while doing so felt the need to point out, as politely as he possibly could, some of the referees shortcomings such as his lack of fairness, lack of sight, lack of testicles and the fact that he just wasn’t a very good referee in Johnsons’ eyes.

Only six minutes into the second half the home side carved out a great chance. After some neat built up play the ball found its way to Dave Walsh in the box. His right foot strike was heading straight to the bottom left corner of the net before the keeper pulled off a magnificent save to deny Walshy the lead goal. Ian Stack had a decent penalty shout turned down soon after and when the ball broke to Hogan he blasted over. Griffin had a long range effort fly wide of the right hand upright as Wanderers piled on the pressure in search of the lead. As with all teams chasing a lead they can be vulnerable to the counter attack and Cormac Downing had to put in a last ditch tackle to stop a dangerous situation developing on the hour mark.

Next a whipped free kick from Stack was just missed by Griffin and hit Cronin standing behind him. The ball shot across the box and away to safety. On 64 minutes the visitors were reduced to ten men and they had to put up a serious rear guard action for the rest of the game. Wanderers almost gifted them the lead again two minutes after the sending off. Pa Brady lost the ball in a poor attempt to play out from the back and only a heroic tackle from Cronin saved Pa’s blushes and a point as it turned out. With a quarter hour remaining Stoat slipped a perfect ball through to Damo Brady but with a virtual open goal his left foot effort went into the side netting. The same combination saw Brady shoot wide again three minutes later and we all began to wonder. James Stoat was causing the ‘lodge defence all sorts of problems in this phase of the game and one move saw him pick out Griffin on the edge of the box. Griffin flicked the ball on over the head of the defender back into the path of stoat but his tame effort deserved much more. Stacky put in a superb cross with time running out but a brilliant toe poke clearance by the defender took the ball away from the Wanderers forward.

There was still time for Pa Brady to have a free header in the box blocked and in the final action Stoat drove through the middle of the defence past three players and when it seemed he was going to seal the points, his final shot was inevitably blocked and we all went home and pondered what might have been…..if Farrell had been playing!

Team: Sean McDermott, Cormac Downing, David Quigley, Pa Brady, Tommy Cronin(Ian Murphy 67), Andy Hogan, Damien Brady, Dave Walsh, James Stoat, Jimmy Griffin, Ian Stack.