With at least three walking in the starting lineup wounded the Casuals brought Ben Murphy and the O’Connor’s James and Brady on to the bench for this match up against bitter rivals Athletic Cosmos.
And it was Cosmos who started the brighter dominating play with danger man Aaron Toy creating all sorts of problems in midfield. However he succumbed to a groin injury early on and from there on the Casuals took a foot hold in the game.
And it was against the run of play on 20 minutes the Casuals took the lead. Paul Geezer Miller tried an audacious lob from 25 yards after spying the Cosmos keeper off his line and like his spectacular goal against Braves a few weeks back he found the back of the net.
Cosmos came back at the Casuals and on the half our mark Dave Downes poached a goal for the Athletic side aided by a mix-up in the Marist box.
This didn’t seem to faze the orange side who started to look more and more dangerous with Cameron Dale and Matt Roberts spearheading a quick and potent looking attack. Cosmos keeper Hickling was called on to make a number of decent saves. At one stage a passage of play saw John Dale hit the post, a follow up by Cameron Dale came off the crossbar and the rebound from Eades was saved by Hickling.
But pressure told and it wasn’t long before Miller had his second. A lovely left foot half volley from just inside the box gave the keeper no chance whatsoever.
Half time arrived with a buoyant Casuals 2-1 up.
The second half was a stalemate for large periods. Ivan Gomez stifled the threat of Downes and on the break the Casuals always looked dangerous.
With ten minutes remaining one of these breaks saw a ball into the box which Dale controlled and played past Hickling to make it 3-1. Cosmos almost got one back straight away when a goalmouth melee saw Buchanan in the Casuals goal pull off a number of saves from shots and firm backpasses.
However the Casuals held on and could have made it 4-1 at the death when Dale had another shot saved.
The season is taking a familiar turn for Marist Casuals – a poor first half followed by an improved second stage – and next weekend the local derby against the better performing Shamrocks takes place. I wouldn’t pick a winner. But I also wouldnt bet in the Casuals to lose based on Saturday’s performance.
