On a miserable wet & windy day the Park lads travelled to Camp for their opening game of the season in the league campaign, The teams had met in the cup last season, with the Park winning a tight affair. this time though it was a different story with the Park Lads controlling the game in all sectors taking max. points with a comfortable win,
1st Half
A strong wind blowing diagonally across the pitch favoured the park at the tip off which allowed them press high up the pitch, the lads got off to a flier, within a minute from tip off Sean pounced on a nice through ball from Kevin, playing in the centre for 1st time, and side footed past the keeper 1-0. The park settled into the game, Kevin and Greg controlled the midfield battles with Eoin & Liam raiding on the wings and it was from this pressure the 2nd goal came for the Park, a carbon copy of the 1st with Kevin the provider and Sean neatly tucking the ball past the Camp keeper, 2-0 up after 10 mins and the lads were growing in confidence, Conor was tireless up front and his work rate paid off, a cross from Eoin into the box to conor who was brought down by the camp defender, makers takers as they say and he duly stood up and cooly dispatched the penalty to the left corner, keeper had no chance, 3-0 after 13 mins, 2 mins later and again it was Eoin taking the assist passing across the box to Liam who finished to the corner from outside the box. On the 20 min mark Conor finished off a fine move which started from Junior at centre back out wide to Eoin who drilled a cross into the box which Conor latched onto and with the outside of his right boot vollied into the net 5-0, 3 mins later it was Sean completed his hatrick with another simple goal side footing past the keeper from a pin point pass from Liam on the right. The park created another couple of chances prior to the break with Junior thumping the ball from 30 yds to be denied by the crossbar, it was not all one way traffic as Camp creating a few good chances of their own but the park defence of Tide , Junior, Nathan Cian were solid, with Gavin making saves when required. 6-0 at the break.
2nd Half
Now playing into the wind the Park were under pressure from the Camp attack and had to play deeper to be able to deal with the long balls. Both sides were creating chances and defending well most of the play happening in the middle third.But it was the Park who got the better of the exchanges and on the 35th min, Liam fired home for his 2nd from a goal mouth scramble. The park made changes with Colin coming into the centre for Kevin, Rhys for Nathan at right back and Mervin up front for Sean. Colin made an instant impact providing a sublime diagonal ball to Liam on the right who controlled the ball beautifully and fired to the top of the net to complete his hatrick. 38 mins in and the park had a commanding 8 nil lead. The home team were always a threat and battled hard despite the scoreline and were rewarded with a goal straight from the corner kick with the Park defence caught napping.
Colin was orchestrating everything from midfield with Eoin, Conor & Mervin was making great runs up front but narrowly failing to beat the offside trap. Their time would come and on the 50 min mark Mervin was rewarded for his efforts, with a gut bursting run thru the heart of the defence onto a thru ball from Colin, one on one with keeper Mervin side footed the ball to the left corner. 5 mins later and Conor slid on to a shot from Mervin which was parried by the keeper, to bag his first compeditive hatrick for the Park. Mervin fired home 2 mins later for his brace. Final whistle and a comfortable win for the Parks lads
The reward another tough Nat. Cup game with a 3rd round home tie versus the North Tipp champions BT Harps.
Players of Note: Tide, Sean, Kevin, Liam, Eoin, Cian
Man of the Match: Conor O’ Sullivan, battled hard up front until the final whistle, bagging his first compeditive hatrick including a cooly dispatched penalty.
Squad on the Day: Gavin Doody, Cian Purcell, Kevin Goulding, Rhys Keane, Junior Ankomah, Colin Walsh, Mervyn Shalemba, Nathan Gleeson, Liam Tobin, Sean McGrath, Greg Scanlon, Conor O’ Sullivan, Tide Osinubi, Eoin Higgins
Reminder: New winter training times Mondays & Fridays 7 – 8pm