East Antrim Youth League Comber Rec 3 : 1 Larne Youth
Valley Park
Saturday 23rd February 2007
This was a game in which Comber were to be thankful to have a strong official referee. From the off it seemed as if Larne, who it must be said have a good side, had decided that their best chance of beating Comber was to kick them off the park! Within two minutes Patmore was the victim of a very poor tackle and within 5 had been badly tackled again by the same player who this time received a booking for his trouble. Larne paid for this aggressive approach on 8 minutes when Hanna scored expertly from a free kick which had been awarded on the corner of the Larne box after yet another foul. Larne were still well in the game at this point and equalised some 5 minutes later when their forward broke through the middle after a poor Comber clearance to force the ball home. All was to play for at this point however the game swung Comber’s way when a poor tackle on Coulter, which resulted in him being unable to continue, was immediately followed by a horrendous tackle on Magee. The first went unpunished whilst the second earned a straight red – something which the Comber management had never previously seen in Under 13 football and which the Larne management didn’t even try to defend. Thankfully, this seemed to the dull to some extent the aggressive edge of the Larne side.
The second half saw Comber have the majority of play against 10 “man” Larne who fought bravely however, following another free kick, Comber went ahead when Wilson headed in at the far post. The game was effectively finished when the Larne keeper made a hash off what should have been a straightforward save and the ball crept under his body and into the net. Larne continued to make the odd chance however Comber held on for what was a narrow win and a first defeat for Larne since the first week of November.
At the end of the game the Larne manager, somewhat ungracious in defeat, complained of the number of free kicks awarded against his team, stating it was a man’s game from which it can only be concluded that they must grow up earlier in Larne!!
