Spartak 2, Everton1.<\/p>\n
Spartak forced their way back into contention for promotion with a fine display in Marlay, coming back from a goal down to win, and avenging a five goal defeat by the same opponents some weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The back four, after a somewhat shaky start, settled down well and denied Everton any score from play. Peter O\u2019Toole commanded his area well and his handling was good, as well as making a couple of good saves.<\/p>\n
A great long pass from Tom Flanagan found Neil McGowan who transferred to Gintaras Cibirka whose shot was defelected for a corner. Graham McEnroe had a shot from close in blocked by a defender.<\/p>\n
Two penalty decisions were awarded in close succession.\u00a0Spartak were unlucky to go behind when Neil McGowan was adjudged to have handled, and Everton converted the softly awarded penalty. Just 8 minutes later Will O\u2019Connell burst into the box, was impeded, and the ref\u00a0again pointed to the spot. Again a soft award.\u00a0 McGowan converted the spot kick to level matters.<\/p>\n
As Spartak\u00a0gained momentum, a move by O\u2019Connell and McEnroe set Cibirka free; rounding the keeper he was forced wide and laid off to Rob Mahon, whose shot was blocked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just on half time an intricate close passing move by McEnroe and McGowan put Cibirka in but he pulled wide from a tight angle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On 48 minutes, a free kick from 30 yards out on the left was cunningly flighted by McGowan. Glen Burke timed his run to beat the attempted offside trap and squared to Graham McEnroe who drilled in from close range.<\/p>\n
In response Everton clipped the top of the bar with a header.<\/p>\n
Spartak were playing well on he break. McEnroe glanced a header wide from McGowan\u2019s cross and then McEnroe\u2019s perfect pass put Cibirka through only for the Everton custodian to block with his feet.<\/p>\n
At the other end as Everton poured forward Steve Grier made a superb challenge on the bye line and Glen Burke covered another dangerous situation. Alex Kenny and Rob Mahon\u00a0played\u00a0their part in repelling the onslaught, with the midfield hard work of Love and O\u2019Connell tracking down danger.<\/p>\n
Hearts stopped when Stuart Love\u2019s attempted header clear looped behind him to the far post and Grier had to intervene decisively when an equaliser seemed imminent.\u00a0 Alex Kenny and Steve Grier were on overtime repulsing the aerieal assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tom Kowal, booked earlier for kicking the ball away, got a second yellow card for alleged diving. He made a little too much of a foul, and a crowd scene ensued when the Everton manager tried to lift Tom back to his feet.<\/p>\n
A great result and a\u00a0solid display which brings us closer to the leaders, albeit we are still 5th in a 5 horse race.<\/p>\n
Form Report<\/p>\n
Peter O\u2019Toole 8 Glen Burke 7 Robert Mahon 7 Steve Grier 8 Alex Kenny 8 Tom Flanagan 7 Neil McGowan 8 Gintaras Cibirka 7 Will O\u2019Connell 7 Graham McEnroe\u00a08 Stuart Love 7<\/p>\n
Subs Tom Kowal 5 Dave Browne Fintan Grace Kevin O\u2019Toole Graham Breen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spartak 2, Everton1. Spartak forced their way back into contention for promotion with a fine display in Marlay, coming back from a goal down to win, and avenging a five goal defeat by the same opponents some weeks ago. \u00a0The back four, after a somewhat shaky start, settled down well and denied Everton any score […]<\/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-905","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\/905","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=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}