Glencormac in full control

League leaders have a comfortable day at the office

GLENCORMAC KNOCKMITTEN 5 1

GLENCORMAC and Knockmitten battled it out on a wet and windy morning in the Pat O Toole Division 1B last Sunday in what turned out to be an easy day at the office for the impressive Glencormac outfit.

With the weather being so bad throughout the game the conditions of the pitch made it almost impossible for either side to try and play good football on the ground.

Both teams resulted to playing the ball over the top looking to unleash their pacey strikers.

The first goal came after a mistake at the back from Glencormac, which wasn’t helped by the wet conditions on the day.

Defender Luke Callahan tried to clear the ball from a Knockmitten cross but instead of clearing the ball out for a corner the defender slipped and fired the ball into his own net. An unfortunate own goal from the Glencormac defender in the 13th minute.

It took the home side twenty minutes before they got themselves into the game, pacey striker Sam Kerry had made some great solo runs during the first 20 minutes of the game but just couldn’t find the back of the net on a couple of occasions.

His best opportunity came in the 23rd minute when the Knockmitten ’keeper delayed on a back pass which let the pacey attacker in on goal, but again Kerry stroked his shot into the side netting.

Kerry’s dangerous pace continued to be a problem for the Knockmitten defence and he was awarded a penalty in the 31st minute when he was through on goal but before he could pull the trigger he was tripped inside the area.

Sam Callahan stepped up to take the penalty but didn’t get enough power behind the strike and resulted in an easy save for the Knockmitten goalkeeper.

Glencormac were gaining in confidence and it wasn’t long before they hit the back of the net after a great run by midfielder James Delahunty.

Delahunty gained possession on the edge of the box and ran at the Knockmitten defence before firing a low shot on his bad foot that flew into the right hand corner of the net, a great strike from the winger to level the scoring.

Five minutes later Callahan’s blushes were saved as the referee pointed to the penalty spot again as Kerry was victim of a bad challenge by the Knockmitten ’keeper.

Callahan was taken off pen- alties after his last miss so Simon Doyle stepped up and stroked the ball to the ’keeper’s left putting his side 2-1 up just before half-time.

The Knockmitten goalkeeper was also shown a red card for his dangerous challenge on Kerry, meaning the away side were down to ten men with the second half still to play. It was starting to look like a day to forget for the travelling side.

Kerry turned provider in the fifth minute of the second half when he found James Delahunty in space just inside the penalty area.

Delahunty twisted and turned before firing another low shot into the corner of the net, it was the midfielder’s second goal of the game and gave his side comfortable two-goal lead early in the second half with a lot of time to play for more goals.

Striker Sam Kerry got his well-deserved goal in the 71st minute after some great combination play from himself and goal scorer James Delahunty.

Delahunty went on another one of his dazzling runs dragging out the Knockmitten defence before squaring the ball across the goal line to Kerry, who easily tapped the ball into the corner of the net, putting his side 4-1 up with no chance of a comeback for the travelling side. Glencormac put the final nail in the coffin with a fifth goal in the 80th minute.

A well delivered corner-kick met the head of Ben Callahan who needed the ball in the roof of the net to put the game well out of the reach of his opponents.

Knockmitten did have various chances during the second half but failed to challenge Glencormac keeper Gabor Radoczy.

The sending off of their goalkeeper in the first half really effected the away side’s perfor- mance in the second half as did the wet and windy conditions on the day.

Credit to the home side Glencormac who made their opponents pay for their mistakes in defence throughout the game.

The home side were very clinical in front of goal and could probably have had more goals but will definitely go away happy with the full three points on a day when the weather was very much against them.

Glencormac: 1. Gabor Radoczy, 2. Alan Hill, 3. Mark Delahunty, 4. Luke Callahan, 5. Mick Rooney, 6. James Delahunty, 7. Owen Molloy, 8. Ben Callahan,

9. Simon Doyle, 10. Sam Kerry,

11. Sam Callahan.

Subs: Ian Devlin for Owen Molloy (50min), Stephen Kirwan for Sam Callahan (58min), David Kelly for Mick Rooney (80min).

Referee: Dominic Lauchesse .