Tuesday 8 June 2010

Red ref cant help Army overpower Balaga

After last week’s terrific victory over QEF, Balaga faced another tough challenge in table toppers Red Army. Both Webz and Damo were out due to a personal issues so Tongo had to do without their captain and number 1. New signing John Dumphy stepped into goals which allowed Tom O’C and Kevin B to continue their central defensive partnership. The team was:



It was a piping hot 7 o’clock evening kick-off and this caused a slow start to the match, with both defenders guilty of some slack defending at the beginning. Only for JD, Balaga could have found themselves behind early on. The CIT international was playing out of his skin and made sure the back two and midfield were up for the task. With Stevie P back as cover, and Tristan down the other wing, quick breaks were always a problem for Red Army, but some quick passing by Army saw Dumphy make a few vital saves early on.
A throw in from JD out the left to the on running Kev out of defence, saw the defender hit a left foot volley which was goal bound only for it to strike off a helpless Dave on way to goal. Not long after this another JD throw, once more to Kev, was left by the defender for a red hot Phil O’D who controlled it with his left knee, while back to goal. He swivel volley and hit it past the Army keeper for 1-0!!!
The Cucumbers held out for about 5 or 6 minutes before Red Army got the equalizer, through a penalty. A quick attack left Tristan with no option but to slide in to block a shot. The ref had no hesitation in giving the peno, as he had no hesitation giving Army most decisions all night. They buried it and the score stayed at 1-1 till half time.

The second half ebbed too and fro with both sides coming close if not for some good defending by Balaga, (with Dickie and JD contributing to some great interceptions) or some over the top tackling by Red Army. Balaga refused to let the one sided ref to get them down though and with 2 minutes remaining, Phil the goal machine O’Driscoll collected the ball out the Tongo left, controlled it, looked up and hit an unstoppable effort into Army’s near post to leave it 2-1!!!!

The remaining 2 minutes turned into at least 5 or 6 and despite all the effort to allow Army back into it by the ref, Tongo held out to claim their 2nd victory of the season and moved to 2nd in the table on goal difference, after douglasmortage.ie held Racing Club to a 3-3 draw. In other results, QEF picked up their first points of the season with a 2-1 victory over MaDuleas.


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