DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

17 October 2004 Edgar Hemigway Junior Cup Round 1 at DUNDONALD ROAD REC

Bar Sia 4 (1)
10,89,90,90
DCFC 2 (0)
Leroy 53, Leo 86

The script was nearly written after Leo struck what looked to be the winner on the 86th minute, from 1-0 down Dundonald battle their hearts out and turn it around to win 2-1 ...... no sooner was the match report whisked off to the press for an early publication Bar Sia scored, scored and scored again, gutting. So close, yet so far, history has a habit of repeating itself, last season we let a 2-0 lead against Kingsway go begging and lost in extra-time, a couple of seasons ago we were minutes away from putting the old Nuwood out of the Surrey Cup and then there's another Surrey Cup tie where we let our 2-0 lead against Santos 92 go, to lose 3-2. Cup games are proving a bit of a headache!

Looking on the positive side we battled for our lives and were at times on top, against a side who are doing well in Division 8. Nearly everyone gave 100% today, we couldn't have asked for more. Being without a keeper for the second week didn't help. Another problem we are seeming to find hard to overcome. If you take the positives out of this performance, you would expect us to win more than we lose this season, but then haven't we said that before ?

This was a bit of a strange fixture, playing away on our home ground, against a side playing in the same colours as ourselves. Well it is their home ground to. Of course we met earlier in a pre-season friendly and it was good to see the marked improvement, from that game. For long spells we were outrun in that friendly, we were much better today.

Sia got off to a good early start, after they caught us out at the back, breaking quickly and finishing off the chance, it was the first real chance of the game, disappointing to concede, as we had found ourselves looking fairly comfortable for the opening minutes. The first half didn't present itself with an abundance of chances. Luckily stand in keeper Gary wasn't put under too much pressure. We didn't create that many chances ourselves. Richie forced the keeper into a relatively comfortable save and also headed wide. All in all, we could be happy with our first half performance.

The start to the 2nd half was a lively one, this game was still very much in the balance. We weren't by any means out of it and Sia needed a second to make it difficult for us to come back. By now the challenges were starting to test the ref's patience, poor old Dan always seems to get on the wrong side of the ref. He had already made a few late challenges in the first half, but also seemed to be taken out in the first half. Once raged, he stays raged and seemed a bit unlucky to get dismissed for another late challenge. Ironically we didn't seem to suffer too much at first, even though we were reduced to ten men. Our persistence paid off after Leroy's flick on brought us level. Now it really was game on, both sides rolled their sleeves up, tackles went flying, it was admittedly a slightly sodden pitch, but even so, some challenges from either side were late. Leo came unstuck after he put in one late challenge too many. Richie got taken out, in a challenge that could have resulted in more than just a yellow, he reacted badly and subsequently got booked himself.

Bar Sia continued to mount further threats, most efforts going wide, a couple only just. This was starting to turn into a bit of a classic, a real neck and neck tie, then when Leo thumped what looked like to be the winner, jubilant celebrations followed. We only had 4 minutes plus stoppage time to hang on, but this goal seemed to have a very strange effect on us. All of sudden, we went to pieces. We didn't notice the fact we only had 10 men up until now, but you could all of a sudden, see big gaps at the back and Bar sia soon equalised, this was followed by a third and then as we pushed up to try and equalise ourselves, we were caught out yet again and they scored number four. Talk about a team going to pieces, such a shame as we did so well for 88 odd minutes.

The importance of this tie could be looked on as being fairly minimal, as we are now in the Hickey Cup, it's well worth pointing out to any casual observers that we aren't trying to fix it so we enter the losers cup - honest, but then looking at the minutes of Sia's goals, it does look very suspicious. We've never won a match in this cup and this was definitely a time when we deserved to break that bogie, maybe we can get it right next season, until then bring on the Hickey Cup !