08/10/2005
F.C. Penarol 3 - 4 Lisnafillan Swifts
Having a free week prior to this international weekend we were glad to get a
friendly tie arranged to keep the team sharp. Having taken a knock in the
O’Kane Cup tie against Harryville Homers, an easy game would’ve been ideal.
Unfortunately our opposition was to be F.C. Penarol, last season’s 1st
Division champions, so we were not expecting much!
Penarol fielded a team of unquestionable quality including Keith Wylie,
Michael Maybin, Kieran Loughran, Wesley Lamont, and Darren Crawford to name
a few.
Things started off quite well, although it was Penarol who settled quickest
into their passing style of football. Maybin and Loughran were particularly
effective in midfield and seemed to be finding a lot of space to pick out a
few punishing through balls. Our defence was under constant pressure as
nothing seemed to stick further up the field with Penarol players being
first to almost every ball.
Richard Young and William Crockard stood out in particular in the
Lisnafillan defence while Roy Calderwood was equal to most things in goal.
However, under constant bombardment something had to give and it was Mark
Gamble who broke the deadlock for Penarol when he reacted first to a bit of
confusion in the Swifts’ defence.
Lisnafillan reacted well to this blow and slowly played their way into the game. Darryl Watson was beginning to get forward on the left and was unlucky not to find Simon Murry with an accurate cross which John McClean intercepted for the home team.
Penarol were now restricted to a few long range efforts although they were
still on top and not really tested at the back. With some good wing work
they carved out a couple of great chances, the first of which, a goal bound
header by Wesley Lamont, was superbly saved by Calderwood. Unfortunately for
the visitors Lamont got onto a similar effort before half time and sent the
teams in for the break at 2 - 0.
Half time: 2-0
With a couple of changes to personnel Lisnafillan went into the second half
like a new team. Their front line of Andy Calderwood and Simon Murry were
causing chaos in the Penarol defence with their speed and strength. It was
Andy who opened Lisnafillan’s account when he went on a superb solo run,
beating three men and placing it past a helpless Darren Crawford.
Peter Kernoughan, on his debut for the club, partnered Rodney Beggs very
well in the middle of the park and both were now starting to make their
tackles count. Kernoughan broke up another good Penarol move and quickly fed
the ball through to Calderwood who despatched an almost identical goal to
his first to draw the teams level.
Penarol were spurred into action from the restart with Keith Wylie getting
forward well from midfield. His cross field ball created problems for
Lisnafillan’s defence and again Mark Gamble was quickest to react in the
confusion to pull Penarol ahead.
Russell Craig came on for the Swifts and was very direct in his play,
linking well with Murry and Andy Calderwood. He was consistently getting
into the box, successfully losing his marker and soon made his hard work
count with a stunning left footed volley into the top right hand corner of
the net levelling the tie.
Like the score, things seemed to cancel each other out on the field with a
lot of the play concentrated in the midfield area. Rodney Beggs was picking
up all the loose balls and varied his passing well although no-one expected
Darryl Watson to collect it on the left and smash a shot in over Wesley
Lamont from 30yards out on the left hand touch line to win the match. A
fitting winning goal for a good victory.
Full time: 3-4
