Manortown 4 Spartak 4<\/p>\n
A strange affair which Spartak should have won comfortably and could indeed have lost at the end \u2013 all going Spartak\u2019s way until the weather changed to a furious rainstorm with thunder and lightning and Spartak found themselves battling the elements as well as the opposition.<\/p>\n
In the first half the home side enjoyed the majority of possession but Spartak defended capably and were extremely effective on the break. Mike Hull might have scored with a header in the first minute but for a great save by the home keeper.\u00a0 Steve Browne always looked dangerous while Alan Cummins had his most effective half so far this season. A first ever goal from Chris Hogan, albeit aided by a deflection,\u00a0\u00a0was welcomed by all after good work by Cummins and Browne was followed by a firm header by Cummins from Hanratty\u2019s corner and then Hanratty threaded a fine pass for Browne to round the keeper and slot number three; and Spartak\u00a0held a slightly flattering half time lead.<\/p>\n
Early in the second half a harshly awarded penalty (the foul by Martin Costello\u00a0was 5 yards outside the box) gave the home side hope. That seemed to be extinguished when McInerney, who had earlier shot wide from a good position, released Browne with a delightful pass and Browne finished well on 66 minutes. That should have been that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the words of the Manortown manager, divine intervention was required and arrived in the form of a sudden change in weather conditions. A balmy afternoon was transformed by torrential rain and wind.<\/p>\n
Spartak\u2019s work rate dropped and appetite for battling the conditions weakened and when a snap shot reduced arrears the home side\u2019s tails were up. Spartak\u2019s defensive resolve weakened. Martin Costello, previously imperious as defensive lynch pin, seemed\u00a0unnerved after conceding the penalty and never recovered his composure. Hanratty , while contributing to first half goals, was never on his game defensively and tamely conceded a soft goal by failing to close down his man in the box.\u00a0 Dave O Kelly at left back and Cathal Clancy, who \u00a0bravely carried on after a clash of heads, were exposed, along with their colleagues, \u00a0by a midfield which never got to grips with the match and\u00a0Manortown equalised with a wind assisted long shot which skidded past a deceived Mick Costello. \u00a0\u00a0ShaneMcInerney high work rate was unable to compensate for his midfield colleagues and possession was wasted and tackles missed. Chris Hogan and Rob Deering contributed only sporadically.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Manortown then missed an open goal header before Spartak recovered some composure. Cummins might have\u00a0 played Browne in rather than shoot weakly and a couple of set piece opportunities were wasted.<\/p>\n
The home side celebrated a big coneback in\u00a0what felt like a defeat for the sky blues. However overall there was plenty to work with especially in attacking terms, and with better defensive discipline rewards will come.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Form Report<\/p>\n
Mick Costello 6 Niall Hanratty 5 Dave O Kelly 6 Martin Costello 6 Cathal Clancy 6 Shane McInerney 7 Rob Deering 5 Alan Cummins 6 Steve Browne 8 Chris Hogan 5 Mike Hull 6<\/p>\n
Mick Greene 5 Dave Agnew 5\u00a0.\u00a0 Just two subs, as there were a number of no shows \u2013\u00a0Tom O\u2019Driscoll, Dermot Dooley and Colm O Sullivan while both Neill and Mark Bolger\u00a0cried\u00a0off an hour before the match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manortown 4 Spartak 4 A strange affair which Spartak should have won comfortably and could indeed have lost at the end \u2013 all going Spartak\u2019s way until the weather changed to a furious rainstorm with thunder and lightning and Spartak found themselves battling the elements as well as the opposition. In the first half the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news","category-saturday-lsl-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}