Wanderers Slain by Johnstown 2-1

Having suffered their only reverse of the season so far in the reverse of this fixture, Johnstown were more than determined to exact their revenge on the visitors from Slane. Thanks to first half goals from J. Byrne and Peter Dempsey, Preston’s charges did just that.

Johnstown laid siege to the Slane goal in the opening minutes and the breakthrough was not long in coming. After just 3 minutes, a superb tackle on the Slane right winger saw Marius Tekorius win possession in midfield. He passed to Peter Dempsey, who quickly played in J. Byrne, leaving him with a simple 1 on 1 chance. Byrne took his time before firing home his 3rd of the season.

The lead did not last long however, as, before the clock reached double digits, the visitors were level. A free kick was awarded wide on their left, level with the edge of area. It was struck firmly but curling straight into the arms of Pat Hegarty in the Johnstown net, until the unfortunate intervention of a defender’s head diverted past the helpless Hegarty.

Johnstown should have regained their lead shortly after. Barry Halpin, broke from midfield and played a perfectly weighted ball to J. Byrne. He hit a low cross almost instantly to the far post where his strike partner Dempsey was waiting. On this occasion, Johnstown’s top scorer could not keep his shot down and it passed safely over the bar.

On 25 minutes, Johnstown had an even better chance to go back in front. Shane Sheridan played a ball to J. Byrne who took it into the area where he was upended and the referee pointed to the spot. Immediately, Sheridan took the responsibility of taking the spot kick. To his and Johnstown’s dismay, he could only watch on as the Slane custodian picking the correct side and saved the spot kick.

In injury time at the end of the first half, Johnstown got themselves back in front. The visitors had a free in their attacking third, which was headed straight at Hegarty who showed great awareness to quickly clear up field. The ball found its way to Tekorius on the left. He moved it on to J. Byrne who found Dempsey unmarked in the area with time to pick his spot, scoring his 10th goal of the season, 8 coming in the league.

Although the visitors had their fair share of possession, they struggled to create much by way of threat to the Johnstown goal, while Johnstown regularly looked like increasing their lead. This pattern continued throughout the 2nd half.

A tenacious tackle by Tekorius was the catalyst for the next Johnstown attack. He knocked the ball into Dempsey before continuing his run, sucking a couple of defenders out from the centre. As the space opened, Dempsey hit a shot curling low into bottom corner before the strong hand of the Slane keeper pushed the ball away.

With the game entering its final quarter, Dempsey won possession high up field. As he raced through, the keeper advanced off his line. With Tekorius unmarked and better placed, Dempsey opted to chip the keeper. Alas, he stood tall and comfortably saved Dempsey’s effort.

Less than a minute later, Dempsey was in almost the exact same situation. On this occasion he crossed to Tekorius, who, despite an excellent first touch, could only blast over the bar.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, Peter Dempsey’s night took a turn for the worse. Having been booked earlier in the night, he said just one too many things to the referee who issued him his 2nd yellow reducing Johnstown to 10 men.

The final 10 minutes saw Johnstown beginning to rue their missed chances as Slane made their numerical advantage count. Following some neat play in midfield, Wanderers were through, bearing down on Hegarty’s goal. They looked favourites to level the game, until captain Dave Grumley executed a perfectly timed tackle in the area removing the danger.

If that was not enough to get the hearts beating a little faster, there was more drama to come. Deep in injury time, with Johnstown searching for their critical 3rd, James Kennedy showed great strength on the goal line getting into the Slane area. His shot from a very tight angle, looped high towards the back post where Darren Conway was waiting. With the goal at his mercy, Conway’s header came back off the bar.

The visitors’ immediately cleared up field. As they advanced, they got through the hosts’ rearguard. Although a spectator for much of the night, Hegarty remained alert and quickly came off his line narrowing the attackers’ angle. There was a sharp intake of breath on the Johnstown line as he was chipped, the ball dropping into the net, until the timely intervention of right back Barry Sanfey, executing a last gasp goal line clearance preserving Johnstown’s narrow lead and another 3 points for Garry Preston’s men.

Its only early days for our over 35s in their campaign this summer but with two games under their belt the team is playing extremely well.  This evening with the MDL just publishing this weeks results at this very early stage the lads are on top of the Table.  Well done guys keep up the great work.

 

[tb_standings limit=”0″ comp=”282″ season=”7″ club=”138″ linktext=”View all standings” stats=”p,w,d,l,f,a,pts” title=”Over 35s “]

With just over two and a half hours to go till our under 35s take to the filed for the first time. We would like to wish them all the best of luck in their summer of football.  Hope a few of you can come down to support the guys.