Gifts come from Glens
Peter Ferguson
Missed chances and defensive gifts came back to haunt Glencairn once again as they slipped to a 3-2 defeat away to Yoker .
The home side opened the scoring with their first serious attempt on goal in the fifth minute. Greg Maitland found himself in space on the edge of the penalty area, and he rifled in a shot past the keeper.
Maitland had a golden chance to double his tally in the 11th minute when Sean McGuire tried to dribble across his penalty area, but Hutchison made an excellent leg block.
The home side doubled their lead in the 27 th minute. Rhys Donaldson was short with a pass back to Hutchison, allowing striker RyanHyn es to pounce. Once again Hutchison made a good block with his legs, but this time the ball rebounded out to David Crerand who nodded the ball in.
The Glens were right back in contention in the second half. A ball down the left channel released the pace of Jay McKay, and his initial attempted cross was blocked, but he latched onto the loose ball immediately to drill a low angled shot which flashed past Liam Campbell and into the net.
After surviving a scare from a Yoker attack, Harvey decided to change the shape of the Glencairn team to 3-4-3 but the home side reestablished their two-goal lead in the 69th minute. Alan Muir was asked by the referee to remove his wedding ring that he had forgotten to take off, but surprisingly he wasn’t allowed to hand it to the dugout, and instead the referee insisted that he left the pitch and wasn’t allowed back on immediately. Yoker’s corner was only partially cleared and, when the cross came back in, Gary Bissl and was left with a free header from eight yards which he placed into the corner of the net.
The Glens’dugout protested, and the referee was heard to explain that he couldn’t let Muir back on while the ball was in play, however the ball was not in play when he was asked to remove the ring.
In the 74th minute the match was alive as a contest again as Paddy Cullen chested the ball down and clipped it immediately past Campbell.
He went close again in the 77th minute but fired his left foot shot over.
As the match moved into stoppage time The Glens threw everything they had left at Yoker but couldn’t find the break-through.