Match Report
11th September 2008
Last Saturday Kircubbin made the long journey up the Antrim coast to play Kilroot Rec, in what has traditionally been a fiercely competitive match. This season however both teams have been struggling, and are currently languishing at the bottom of the league table. Three points were a must for Kircubbin in order to kick start their season. Both teams struggled to assert themselves early in the game with the defensive quartet on both sides coming out on top for the first half hour. This made for a very scrappy game and neither team created a chance of note. But the game swung in Kircubbin's favour just before the half hour mark, when a wild challenge by a Kilroot player resulted in a straight red card, reducing them to 10 men for the remainder of the game. After this Kircubbin were able to push further forward and put pressure on the Kilroot keeper. Matthew Torney had the best chance of the half, and was very unlucky to see his shot rebound off the post. 0-0 at the break.
The second half was almost a mirror image of the first, with few chances in the opening period, but Kircubbin were the only team looking like scoring a goal as Kilroot never even managed a single shot on target in the whole 90 minutes. But again Kircubbin were finding it difficult to get the ball into the Kilroot net. Adam Arthurs tried a shot from the edge of the box, this time the crossbar came to the rescue of the Antrim team. But the deciding goal came in the 88th minute when Kircubbin's Brendan Masterson scrambled the ball into the net from a couple of yards out following some neat passing football on the right wing. Kircubbin's defense held strong in the dying minutes easily coping with the Kilroot threat, and indeed the peninsula lads could have extended their lead when Shaun Clancy was clean through on goal only for the referee to call him back for a dubious off-side decision. Final score 0-1, and the three points see Kircubbin lifted off the bottom of the table for the first time in three weeks.
This week the team are at home to St Andrews YM in the first round of the Junior Shield. Team to meet at 12.45 for a 1.30 kick off.