28/01/2006

Lisnafillan Swifts 2 - 2 Waveney Swifts

After suffering a damaging defeat away to Waveney earlier in the season, Lisnafillan had hoped to return the favour in this home tie.

Things began brightly, with Greg Marrs stamping his authority on the game early on. He picked up any loose balls and repeatedly found the wide men with his accurate passing. Similarly Rodney Beggs was on top form, winning most of his midfield encounters and Roy Calderwood deserves special mention for his performance at centre forward which was only his second outfield start of the season.

It was Calderwood who opened the scoring. Chris McQuoid broke down the left wing and drilled a low pass into the feet of Simon Murray. Murray cleverly improvised, stepping over the ball, allowing it to run into the 18yard box and just in front of Calderwood. Even though it looked like the Waveney 'keeper might be first to the ball, Roy persisted and fired it low, through the oncoming 'keepers legs to make it 1-0.

Waveney showed why they are among the front runners in the division with an exquisite piece of play to level the tie. They broke against the run of play with devastating movement, pulling the Lisnafillan defence about enough to leave their striker a free run on goal. He superbly lifted the ball over Damien O'Hagan in nets to score.

Lisnafillan knuckled down again and exerted a lot of pressure to win a string of corners. Unfortunately they were let down by their delivery from dead ball situations, often failing to beat the front post.

Lisnafillan's pressure was to pay off when hard work from Phil Alexander created an opening. He closed down the left back who had a mix up with his centre half and allowed Alexander to square the ball across the box. Simon Murray timed his run perfectly and arrived unmarked to slot the ball home.

Half-time: 2-1

This match proved that football is really a game of two halves. Waveney came out for the restart in defiant form. They ensured that the home team's defence had little time to breathe but at the same time were susceptible to Lisnafillan's ability to break quickly.

Waveney came close to an equaliser when their big striker latched onto a shot from all of 35yards out. Unfortunately for him, it took a coat of paint off the crossbar but his powerful strike had left the keeper in no-man's-land. Waveney came close again from one of the many corners they forced only to hit the bar again.

Lisnafillan were unlucky not to kill off the tie when they made the Waveney 'keeper pull off the save of the game. Again Phil Alexander was a nuisance in the box directing a powerful diving header towards the top corner of the net only for the big 'keeper to save at full stretch.

The tie was destined to finish 2-1 but the ref found sufficient injury time to allow one more Waveney attack. Unfortunately for Lisnafillan this was just the attack that the visitors needed to earn a point from the tie. There was no doubt that the Waveney striker was in an off-side position to score, but he despatched his second and most important goal of the game to win an important away point in their league campaign.

Full-time: 2-2

Lisnafillan will feel that this is 2 points lost rather than 1 point gained, but must take real encouragement from a much improved performance from previous weeks.