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Clarence Cup - Saturday 23rd February 2008 14:00 Venue: Blanchflower

Shot in the foot

Three disastrous mistakes each one a carbon copy of the first destroyed Santos’ hopes against Intermediate king pins Sirocco in this Clarence Cup 3^rd round tie on Sat. The carefully worked out game plan of curbing the SiroccO'Goal machine worked perfectly over 75mins with the excellent discipline of the Santos squad in evidence, but the schoolboy howlers of the opening half were so disastrous that all the hard work and discipline were destroyed.

Each goal came from a right wing corner and were identical in nature. Siocco’s, McDade floated in Both of his corners under the Santos bar and as the hitherto steady Santos defenders waited for keeper McVeigh to collect Andrew Rea ghosted in unchallenged to nudge the ball over the line. The first in the 10^th ,min and the second 8 mins later would have been enough to flattenen any side but spurred on by the dedicated skipper McGeehan and young Aaron Harmon Santos refused to lie down. Manus O'Gorman was showing great courage after his long absence with a broken leg troubling ;the Sirocco skipper Lee Cassidy with tenacious running and holding of the ball. His young inexperienced strike partner “Lazio” McCarthy was also showing his courage against a towering Sirocco back line and Santos oozed menace.  Hungry tO'Get back into the game these two players produced a classic strike. Harmon intelligently played in McCarthy from a wide position. The striker drew two defenders and played a superb return ball to the young midfielder who delivered an inch perfect pass to the near post. O'Gorman hurtled in to crash a superlative header to the net. Santos were buoyant now and a raking 70 yard pass from Right Back Burns found Walker free but he misplaced his header and the chance was gone. Then Brady fired over when a cooler shot surely would have seen Santos level. The decision to play Aidan Hughes as the defensive anchor was working perfectly.  Hughes was winning all the arial duels and was instrumental in setting up many of Santos’ best moves.  The other half of the decision misfired ,however, as his commanding presence in goals was sorely missed ,no more so than in the35 min when unbelievably another right wing corner was poked home, almost apologetically, by George Chambers Santos were shattered by this and confidence could be seen fizzing out of them. HT saw Sirocco lead 3-1

Obviously the half time talk was spent trying to re establish the confidence of Santos while Sirocco obviously felt the game was wrapped up.  Santos to their credit went straight into attack and were holding the ball up well. Two further Sirocco corners were now professionally cleared by Maguire who was in inspired form at centerback.

McCarthy was a whisker away from converting O'Gorman’s pass and Harmon shot too hurriedly and flashed his effort just over.  Sirocco were caught by the Santos spirit and possession of the ball and were on the back foot when the killer blow to the gallant Candystripes. An innocuous free kick fell to Burns at right back. In stead of clearing the ball he controlled it straight into the path of Johathan Houston. Even then no danger threatened until the Santos man pulled away from his tackle leaving the Sirocco man a free path tO'Goal, which he accepted gratefully to tuck away the fourth goal.

Santos battled away, but it was a lost cause. Several heads went down and subs were called for. Barry Doherty repeated his excellent performance of the previous week as he came on and supplied a series of defence splitting passes but tiring legs meant Santos could not add to their tally although they did get the ball into the net in the 90^th min but a clear foul on the goalie had been committed.

Sirocco had nothing but praise for the young Santos side admitting 4 set piece goals were hard on a skilful team and something no one could legislate for. Manager McGeehan was fulsome in his praise for the attitude of his squad but angry too in the lack of attitude in a few of his players. “ I feel the match was lost on Wed night when several key players choose not to attend a vital training session.  Those who did, performed magnificently especially Hughes in a strange position for him. My captain and Aaron Harmon won the midfield battle all afternoon but were badly let down and hurt by the lack of attitude from a few of their team mates.  These players will be asked to explain themselves at training this week as if no change, replaced, as there is no room at Santos for this type of attitude

Lineup
		Player	Position	Rating	Info
		Gerard McVeigh	Goalkeeper
		Michael Burns	Right Back
		Stephen Walker	Centreback
		Liam Maguire	Centreback
		Aaron Harmon	Center Midfielder
		Joseph McGeehan	Center Midfielder
		Paul Brady	Left Midfield
		Manus O'Gorman	Striker		man of match again
		Conor McCarthy	Forward
		Aidan Hughes	Defensive Midfielder		ATowering Performance
		Ciaran Mc Cartan	Left Back

Substitutes
		Player	Position	Rating	Info
		Barry Doherty	Left Midfield
		Johnathan Agnew	Right Midfield
		Conor McAuley	Right Back

Man of the Match
		Player	Notes
		Manus O'Gorman	full of Bravery and Committment and a magnificent goal.