Two see red as Mervue are spooked

Date Published: 03-Nov-2009

HALLOWE’EN may have taken place on Saturday night but the nightmare arrived a day early for Mervue United as they were made to look second best throughout their clash with Sporting Fingal in Terryland Park.

The gulf in class between the two sides was evident all through the game, with Mervue’s frustration with their opponents’ dominance leading to the home side going down to nine men before the final whistle was blown.

Indeed, so much were the visitors in control that the game was over as a contest before half-time as three goals in the space of seven minutes from Fingal’s Gary O’Neill, Conan Byrne and Eamon Zayed sealed the win at an early stage.

Mervue did get a consolation goal thanks to a Mark Ludden tap-in, but the Dublin side soon added insult to injury thanks to a superb long range shot from Colm James hitting the back of the net.

Mervue’s supporters would have been disappointed but not surprised by the final scoreline, as in fact Fingal had several other chances that could have seen them stretch their lead even further. Even though the home side were without the injured Damian O’Rourke and the suspended Mike Tierney and Alex Lee, Sporting Fingal’s dominance meant that their presence would have had little effect on the scoreline.

The first of many goal chances for Fingal came on the eighth minute, as Mervue goalkeeper Eoin Martin did well to save when he was left one on one with Robert Bayly.

However, the visitors continued to pile on the pressure and didn’t have to wait long for their efforts to be rewarded. On 14 minutes a Fingal corner into the Mervue penalty area left the assembled players scuffling for the ball. Unfortunately for the home side the ball arrived at the feet of O’Neill, who tapped it in for the first goal of the night.

Mervue may have been disappointed by conceding such a scrappy goal, but they had no time to contemplate their mistakes. Just four minutes later, a superb Fingal cross from the left (one of many on the night) through to Byrne on the right side of the Mervue goal made it easier for the Fingal player to dispatch the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.

On 21 minutes another cross from Fingal’s Eric Foley gave team-mate Zayed the opportunity to score a third, and while his header initially hit the ground, its bounce worked in his favour, reaching the Mervue goal and leaving the home side shocked by what had happened in the previous seven minutes.

Mervue’s resulting frustration then reached a climax on 28 minutes as Nicky Curran was sent off for raising his leg in a clash with Fingal’s Colm James.

The visitors continued their dominance, and should have had their fourth after 41 minutes when Kevin Dawson got past the Mervue goalkeeper topass the ball to team-mate Zayed. However, despite the open goal just yards away, Zayed shot to the left and wide, giving Mervue a rare moment of luck.

Fingal continued their dominance right from the start of the second half, but Mervue battled on, and to their credit clawed a goal back after 54 minutes thanks to Ludden shooting from short range into the centre of the away side’s goal after a pass in from Pat Hoban.

However, this just spurred Fingal on to make more scoring chances and the visitors were unlucky when a long range shot from Byrne flew just over the Mervue goal on 65 minutes. Their perseverance eventually paid off, though, six minutes later when a superb shot from James at least 25 yards outside the home side’s goal went past Martin to reach the back of the net.

Some good link up play from Mervue almost paid dividends on 83 minutes, when a cross from Ludden to substitute Neil Douglas, who was unmarked in front of goal, was intercepted by Fingal ’keeper Darren Quigley.

But it just wasn’t to be Mervue’s night, and the final nail in the coffin came two minutes later, when Hoban received a red card for a challenge on Brian Gannon.

Going into their last game of the season away to Wexford Youths, Friday night’s performance would have given Mervue little optimism about ending their first year in Division One on a high. Still, after last week’s decision by the Mervue board to remain in the division, at least they’ll have another chance to impress next season.