OLV starting line-up;Dave Kelly,James Coates(c),Bart Kavanagh,Martin Dunican,Neil Ferry,Anto Stanley,Philip Lowndes,Pat heary,Gordon Farrell,Noel Stapleton and Mark Matthews.Subs;Mark Elliot,Matt Connelly,Anto Maher,Ian Clifford,Jonny Dutton.
Manager; John Lowndes.
Baldoyle at home was always going to be one of the most anticipated games in the second half of OLVs season as both teams needed a win,Baldoyle wanted to cement their top of the table position and OLV wanted to avenge the defeat suffered last October but also needed the points to close in on Baldoyle and put in a real challenge for the over 35s div 2 title. The home team started well, looked much better on the ball than the visitors and dominated the opening stages with every player getting involved in some good moves,however OLV were dealt a serious blow as influential centre midfielder Pat Heary had to leave the game early with a damaged hamstring,luckily OLV have a strong squad to choose from and Heary was replaced by Mark Elliott. Inevitably OLV took the lead,when the ball was crossed in perfectly from a Mark Matthews corner and as he did away to this team earlier in the campaign, Martin Dunican stormed into the box,rose highest and planted an unstoppable header past the keeper to give his side a well deserved lead.1-0
This goal seemed to rattle Baldoyle who quickly resorted to some questionable sportsman-ship with one player in particular having a lot to answer for as he wound up some of the OLV players and succeeded in getting one player sent off when his dirty play was missed by the referee who turned and only saw the retaliation by the home player and went straight for the red card which seemed quite harsh.The sending off certainly disrupted OLV and as the half was heading to a close disaster struck when Baldoyle grabbed a lucky equalizer when OLV failed to clear an attack and a Baldoyle forward was on hand score,the half finished soon after with OLV still playing the better football and not looking like a side with a man less.
Half-time 1-1
The Half-time break saw Manager John Lowndes make a few tactical changes and bring Matt Connelly on,OLV continued where they left off,passing the ball well and attacking at every opportunity but things took a turn for the worse as the league leaders grabbed two lucky goals in quick succession.1-3
What looked a difficult task now seemed a mountain to climb for OLV,but the Ballyfermot team are made of much tougher stuff than most and they continued to bring the game to the northsiders with every player giving 110%.OLVs persistence eventually paid off as with every substitution made and the team formation changed to quiet an attacking one Gordon Farrell smacked home a beauty from a difficult angle to bring the deficit to just one goal .2-3
The final ten minutes of this encounter were going to be frantic with OLV now holding a genuine belief that they could get one or possibly even three points from this game and this belief was almost realised when again Gordon Farrell had a fine shot superbly saved by the busy Baldoyle keeper and Ian Clifford saw an effort go a couple of feet wide,Baldoyle still were not finished and with OLV constantly on the attack the away team broke forward and scored a quality goal that gave keeper Kelly no chance.2-4
The final few minutes passed too quickly for OLV and with the final whistle sounding the realistic chances of winning the league went too.
Full-time 2-4
Again all credit goes to the players, everybody gave all they could and hopefully all the injured players will be back as soon as possible.
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