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| Soccer: Abysmal City lose three in a row |
19 October 2005
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Newry City 0 Lisburn Distillery 3:
Newry slumped to their third defeat in a row with a truly dismal performance against a decidedly average Lisburn Distillery side at The Showgrounds on Saturday.
In what is almost certain to be Raymond Byrne’s final match in charge, with a new manager set to be appointed this week, the side harked back to the dark days of early last season when they would regularly create virtually nothing and gift the opposition goals for fun.
This was as poor an advert for Irish League football as you are likely to see with two poor sides battling it out to see who could make the least number of mistakes in the match.
A measly crowd turned up to watch a physical Distillery side take the chances that were handed to them on a plate by the over generous City defence.
Caretaker manager Raymond Byrne couldn’t hide his disappointment after the match: “It was a very poor performance in the second half. We gifted them three goals.
We created enough chances I thought but if you don’t put the ball in the back of the net you don’t win games, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
The warning signs came as early as the first 30 seconds when a defensive mix up in the City area gave Darren Armour the opportunity to put his side ahead. However the former Glentoran striker somehow managed to blaze over from six yards with the goal at his mercy.
Newry’s woes were compounded on the quarter hour when right-back Alan Murphy had to be replaced by Andy Crawford after pulling up with what looked like a calf strain.
This forced Paul Donegan to move form the centre of defence to full back and Pat McAllister to drop into the middle of the back four. In what could only be described as a lacklustre first half, and that’s being extremely generous, chances were few and far between.
Distillery captain Wayne Buchanan volleyed over Robert Robinson’s bar from just inside the area before Newry had two great opportunities to go in front on the half hour.
Andy Crawford controlled Steven Ferguson’s low goal-bound shot on the six yard box but could only turn and scuff his shot allowing visiting keeper Phillip Matthews to push it out for a corner.
From that corner, Damien Curran met Ferguson’s inswinger only to see his glancing header cleared off the line with Matthews beaten. There was little spark about any of City’s football on the day and they deservedly went behind two minutes after the restart.
It was a goal so calamitous that it summed up the afternoon for Newry in one moment. With the Newry defence pushing up to play Armour offside on the left wing, Pat McAllister was inexplicably five yards behind everyone else and as a result played the big forward onside.
Armour put over a weak cross which managed to evade both McAllister and Gerry Flynn before deflecting off perma-tanned Andrew Dickson and high past a helpless Robert Robinson.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Newry squandered a golden opportunity to level matters on 56 minutes. Damien Curran rifled in a low 25-yard free kick which Matthews could only parry out to Damien Whitehead who somehow sidefooted the ball over form all of three yards.
Then after Paddy McLaughlin and Paul Donegan had both gone close with near post headers, Armour made sure of the points for the visitors. After the aforementioned Donegan and McLaughlin had failed to clear a long Matthews clearance, Armour took full advantage to fire low past Robinson from 18 yards.
In the final 15 minutes Whitehead had two great chances to get City back into the match but failed to convert either and Andy Kilmartin rounded a convincing win for the visitors with two minutes left.
Damien Curran attempted a through ball just inside the Distillery half which was blocked by, of all people, referee John McKnight, and broke to Kilmartin who ran 40 yards past static Newry defence to round Robinson and comfortably slot home.
It was pure comedy, providing you weren’t a Newry fan and just summed up the all round horrible day they had.
For all the talk around The Showgrounds about a new manager coming in and steadying the ship, the fact remains that whoever does take the reins at Newry, somewhat of a poisoned chalice it seems, they will still only have around twelve experienced first-team players to choose from. After that, the lack of strength in depth is alarming to say the least.
It looks like a case of getting to the January transfer window without dropping too many more points and adding to the squad then. However, the most worrying aspect is that this was a full team out on the pitch on Saturday. God help the club should they get any injuries between now and January.
Those lofty predictions of fourth place finishes and the like seem a long way off now.
Newry City: Robert Robinson (7), Alan Murphy (5), Paddy McLaughlin (5), Paul Donegan (4), Gerry Flynn (4), Richard Clarke (5), Damien Curran (6), Steven Ferguson (4), Pat McAllister (4), Damien Whitehead (5), Barry Curran (5). Subs: Andy Crawford (4) for Murphy (15 mins), Darren King (5) for Ferguson (59 mins) and Daryl Collins (4) for Flynn (72 mins). Main News Page | Print Version | Email to friend | Previous Page
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