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Greenisland 1st XI, sponsored by 3fivetwo Healthcare, played Priorians away in a Senior 1 League match. The match took place in St Columbs Park in bitterly cold conditions. Greenisland started exceptionally well and had Priorians on the back foot for the first 20 minutes. During this period Greenisland had three penalty corners and five shots on target but stalwart defending and good goalkeeping kept them at bay.
Eventually Priorians started to get more into the game. However a series of controversial umpiring decisions were to swing the game. A Greenisland player was yellow carded for obstruction without a warning which meant Greenisland only had 10 players for the following 7 minutes, Greenisland stood firm and held out. Then shortly after getting back to full strength another Greenisland player was shown a yellow card for an alleged deliberate trip. With only a few minutes to go to half time Priorians went on the attack and despite stout defending Priorians made their superior numbers count and forced the ball into the circle and with a stroke of luck lifted the ball towards goal were it looped up into the corner of the net. The half time whistle sounded immediately.
Greenisland started the second half still with only ten players on the field. Greenisland again went on the attack but were caught out on the counter attack by Priorians who scored a scrambled goal. Greenisland then got back to full strength and with rolling substitutions went into full out attack. This persisted for the majority of the second half and Greenisland were only denied goals by excellent defensive work and more controversy when a ball was kicked off the line by a defender that went unnoticed. A high Priorian stick above head height deflecting a drag flick bound for the net followed this.
Greenisland continued to press right up to the final whistle with no reward. The dominance of Greenisland was such that Priorians had no penalty corners in the match. Final score 2 - 0 to Priorians.
The commitment, passion and positive play by the players was outstanding. Although this was a disappointing result Greenisland can take pride in their efforts and roll this forward in the next series of matches.
Greenisland 1st XI Squad – R Hewitt, R Davis, N Deering, A MaCorquodale, R Creaney, N Cairns, J Winning, C McCracken, C McManus, D Montgomery, E McMaw, CA Bennett, G Kane, G Cathcart, L Archibald.
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| 23-Nov-2008 18:50 | |||||||||||||