Friday night lights in Castle Avenue and what could only be described as a tooth gnashing experience for the home support as they watched the home side struggle desperately for supremacy on the scoreboard despite dominating the major phases of the game for the majority of the 80 minutes.
We have been here before. This game had all the hallmarks of a work in process in that we were, literally, one mistake away from winning the contest. Unfortunately, we made one mistake too many and compounded with some bad luck, youthful indiscretion, and some dubious decision making we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. No better man than Danny Riordan to help you with that one.
Looking from an optimistic perspective (e.g. ignoring the result) there were many good things to note. Firstly, our first half scrum dominance of the Old Belvedere pack had ‘Tarf camped in their 22 for 90% of the first half. The fact that we failed to convert dominance into scores is an obvious issue which needs some work and is probably the key to us losing the game in the last messy 10 minutes. However, at least we were there: had we spent the first half defending our line we would be given reason for deep concern.
Secondly, the positive contribution of the young players was really encouraging. The deft little slider put through by Mark Sutton at 10 for Ariel Robles to kick on and score was a classic piece of skill. Alan Hughes’ had the maturity and composure to groove his place kicking after a wobbly start.
Matt Darcy added a try after a horse of a break from Tony Ryan which put the home side 14 points clear with 10 to go. Unfortunately the LSD kicked in after that and as big holes opened up in the pitch and in our game; we went all flower power and handed the opposition easy scores and a final drop goal to Danny Riordan’s left boot.