St Mary’s U13’s 9 game winning streak came to an upbrupt end at a freezing Mallusk on Saturday, when they were narrowly beaten in a pulsating affair by Abbeyvilla. The match not only ended their amazing start to the season, but saw their rivals from Millisle leapfrog them to lead the table by a single point after ten games played by both sides.
It took two referees about half an hour to allow the game to proceed in frosty conditions, and it was the right decision. It truly was a game of two halves as St Mary’s took the game to their opponents from the kick off and were intent on pressuring their opponents from the start. With 5 minutes gone O Reilly went on a mazy run down the left flank and his shot forced a good save by the big Abbeyvilla keeper. At the other end of the pitch Morgan pulled of a fine save from the Abbeyvilla forward. On 12 minutes St Mary’s took a deserved lead when Ross chipped the out of position keeper from 20 yards and his lob cleared the back pedalling keeper. The midfield of Park, Quinn, Ross and Bannon were fighting for every loose ball and were winning most of them too. Midway through the half however, Abbeyvilla broke through the defence and equalised with a fine shot.
This spurred on St Mary’s who had efforts from Quinn, Bannon and O Reilly all fail to trouble the keeper. With five minutes to go to half time O Reilly beat his man on the left again and hit a curling shot which the keeper could only parry, and Quinn was first to the loose ball to slam it home to give St Mary’s a 2-1 half-time lead.
Instead of starting the second half on the front foot with a 2-1 lead, the Saints sat back and let Abbeyvilla take control of the game, and twice in the opening minutes they came close. St Mary’s did not heed the warning signs, and with 5 minutes gone, Abbeyvilla deservedly equalised.
St Mary’s then pushed forward in search of a third goal, but efforts from Ross and O Reilly were saved by the keeper. From a resulting Ross corner, no-one could get the final touch in a goal mouth scramble, which was eventually cleared by the very competent Villa defence. In an end to end match, Abbeyvilla then broke forward, and confusion in the St Mary’s defence led to about 5 attempts to clear the ball, which all failed, and Abbeyvilla gratefully took their chance and fired home for a 3-2 lead.
St Mary’s pushed for an equaliser and a great through ball to O Reilly from Park led to him rounding the keeper and being dragged down in the box by the keeper, and amazingly the referee who was 30 yards behind the play, waved play on !! In their search for a leveller, St Mary’s inevitably left gaps at the back, and these were ruthlessly exploited by the nippy young substitute, who rounded Morgan in nets and made it 4-2 Abbeyvilla.
While the boys were understandably deflated after this defeat, they will take heart from the fact that they are only one point of the top of the table, and will be concentrating on starting another winning run, starting this Saturday against old foes, Bloomfield at Mallusk , 10:00 kick off. The coaches stressed that this is only a minor setback, and that they are more than capable of reversing the result in the return fixture after Christmas.
The player of the month for October was handed out in a quiet changing room after the game, and congrats to Chrissy Lynch for a string of super performances during October. Star men on the day were Morgan in nets, and Park for a tireless performance in midfield.
Team : C Morgan, O Donaghy, C Lynch, O Breen, T McCormick, A Quinn, P Ross, C Bannon, J Park, C McGarritty, E O Reilly, A Begley, C O Malley, P Morgan, C Breen
