Knocklyon1, Spartak 2.<\/p>\n
A memorable win for a battling Spartak side closed the gap at the top of Division 2 Sunday.<\/p>\n
The victory was the fruit of fine defending and hard work all around as Knocklyon had the lion\u2019s share of\u00a0possession. Spartak made the most of their few chances and defended bravely and vigorously.<\/p>\n
The final ten minutes when the home side threw everything into the onslaught for an equaliser featured great tackling, blocks, headers, clearances and saves from the sky blues \u00a0to thwart all attempts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Knocklyon had much the best of the first half with Spartak struggling to string passes together. They hit the bar from a corner and Alex Kenny had to clear off he line with Peter O\u2019Toole beaten.\u00a0 On several ocaasions Spartak were hapy to clear at the expense of corners and throws. On one Spartak break Neil McGowan and Gintaras Cibirka combined but Stuart Love\u2019s pass was intercepted.<\/p>\n
On 41 minutes, Spartak got the break through against the run of play and just as Knocklyon were starting to dominate possession. A throw in was flicked on and Cibirka showed strength and composure to hold off a defender, draw the keeper and lay on a simple tap in for Will O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n
Steve Grier made a fine\u00a0saving tackle early in the second half as Knocklyon tried\u00a0to get level. Spartak broke well at times and when Tom Flanagan was clear\u00a0and fouled it was surprising that no card was produced.\u00a0 Spartak had opportunities from corners when first WillO\u2019Connell mistimed his run and then when Steve Grier shot tamely wide.<\/p>\n
Kenny and Grier were dominant in the aerial duels and the Spartak defence tackled and blocked like fury while O\u2019Toole made a couple of fine saves as the siege started to build again.<\/p>\n
On 71 minutes Spartak got number two direct from a Steve Grier long throw which Graham Breen\u2019s header \u00a0adroitly guided past the keeper.<\/p>\n
The two goal lead did not last long as the home number six powered home a header from a corner at the post abandoned by Burke.<\/p>\n
Spartak\u2019s best breakout should have yielded a penalty when Burke was fouled; instead the ref, a long way behind the play, chose the easier option of a free on the edge of the box. Cibirka\u2019s effort was deflected over.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Overall a resolute performance which continues Spartak\u2019s resurgence.<\/p>\n
Form Report<\/p>\n
Peter O\u2019Toole 7 Glen Burke 7 Rob Mahon 7 Steve Grier 9 Alex Kenny 9 Tom Flanagan 7 Neil McGowan 7 Gintaras Cibirka 7 Will O\u2019Connell 8 Graham Breen 7 Stuart Love 7<\/p>\n
Subs Tom Kowal 6 Tom O\u2019Driscoll 5 Dave Browne Fintan Grace Kevin O\u2019Toole Mick Greene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Knocklyon1, Spartak 2. A memorable win for a battling Spartak side closed the gap at the top of Division 2 Sunday. The victory was the fruit of fine defending and hard work all around as Knocklyon had the lion\u2019s share of\u00a0possession. Spartak made the most of their few chances and defended bravely and vigorously. 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":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news","category-sunday-lsl-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","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=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}