Wind-Assisted Win for Comber Rec

On a Saturday when rainfall and flooded pitches washed out virtually all football, at every level, right across the province, Comber Rec held the ace card with their league fixture at Greencastle against Malachians. The condition of the Shore Road playing surface was little short of miraculous, with the ground firm underfoot and no evidence at all on top of the downpour that had killed off the rest of the Premier league programme.
Rec were back to full strength, although Chris Nicholl was on the bench, and they kicked off against a moderate downfield wind.
The entire opening section of the match belonged to Malachians, who played some fast, first time football, with accurate passing and flowing movement out of defence, and Comber could easily have found themselves two goals behind in the first five minutes.
 With only two minutes gone an Adams free kick from near the right flag reached Donnan unmarked at the back post, but with the goal at his mercy he got below the ball and put his header well over the top.
In the fifth minute the Rec goal survived two further scares. A corner from the right wasn’t cleared and in the ensuing scramble the ball was deflected over the bar. The flag kick from the other side produced more confusion in an uncharacteristically shaky Comber defence before the ball was hacked away.
The Rec defensive wall stood up well to another free kick a few minutes later, but Mals were on the offensive with early balls down the sides and Downey very competitive in the air.
As the half progressed Comber slowly played themselves into the game, but wasted a couple of opportunities down the right side when the cross did not beat the first man.
Midway through the half Rec went behind to a sucker goal. Malachians were awarded a doubtful free kick a few yards outside the area, but Rec neglected to stand a man over the ball while they arranged their defence, and the wily Tucker Kelly showed his experience with an opportunist chip over the half-formed wall into Brian Burgess’s right corner of the net. Rec were caught napping by the goal, but will have learned from it for future occasions.
From the restart Craig McCracken showed some lovely skill at the left flag to force a corner and when his corner kick fell to Gordon Leckey inside the box the Rec striker turned on it but fired wide from five yards. The chance was identical to the one Leckey put away the previous Saturday, but this time he was well off target.
Rec seemed to have been kick-started by the Malachians goal, and started to ask questions of the home defence. A fine McCracken cross from the left side was nicely  returned into the goalmouth by Brent Reid from the right, and keeper Logan was lucky to gather at the second attempt.
Mals were still menacing in the sharp break out, and ten minutes from the break Curley struck a sizzler that flew a couple of yards outside the left post. In contrast, Rec were simply not putting in the shots to test the home keeper, although Jim McCloskey was unfortunate to have a great strike blocked with five minutes of the half remaining.
Curley hit a free kick from the edge of the area over the crossbar right on the half time whistle, and Malachians went in deservedly ahead.
Good fortune smiled on Comber Rec during the interval because the wind increased appreciably in strength, and the rain returned in earnest, so Mals were facing into difficult conditions for the second forty five minutes.
The whole pattern of play was reversed right from the kick off. Rec went on the attack and Reid burst through on the right side of the area but drove his shot into the side netting.
Suddenly Rec were in full control. Leckey’s back header was crossed first time by Ross Hagen, but was inches in front of McCracken, and then a McCloskey free kick set up Leckey who got his shot on target, but Logan parried well.
In the 55th minute, in a siege on the Malachians goal, the ball defied all the laws of gravity and physics by staying out of the home net after Hagen’s header from a Neil Magowan free kick created mayhem at the base of the left upright, but Mals survived. After a superb McCloskey scissors kick scraped the crossbar, it seemed that it was going to be one of those days when the ball simply would not cross the line.
With an hour played of the match Mals were lucky again when a wicked Gareth Larmour centre from the left sideline was fumbled by Logan, but he managed to recover to deny Leckey running in on the rebound.
Leckey had his revenge two minutes later, however, when Rec finally drew level. A first time Hagan lob over the defence allowed him to run though and volley the ball wide of the keeper into the empty net. It was a well taken goal, and richly deserved in view of the spell of continuous Rec pressure.
More McCracken magic minutes later and a good cross ball from the left presented Hagan with a half chance, but his header went wide.
Malachians had offered nothing in attack in the second half, but midway though it Kelly could have added to his first goal but skied a clear chance over from twelve yards.
Rec produced the miss of the match in the next minute. McCloskey’s fiercely hit free kick was dropped by the keeper right to the feet of Leckey, but from five yards he did the impossible and toed the ball past the post.
As in the first half, Mals caused chaos in the Rec box from another corner from the right in the 70th minute.  Once more hesitancy in clearing ran counter to the Rec rearguard’s normal decisiveness.
McCracken’s class showed half an hour into the half when he made room for a shot with a clever turn, and the left foot effort cleared the bar by less than a yard.
Marty Robinson had a good effort blocked in the area, and an excellent Leckey cross from the right troubled the Malachians defence, but amusingly it was Rec keeper Burgess who almost found the net when his long kick out, helped on by the wind, bounced up in front of goal and Logan did well to prevent it stealing underneath his crossbar.
With only five minutes on the watch, Rec grabbed the winner in freakish fashion. McCloskey’s free kick from close to the halfway left sideline curled into the box and the wind assisted it straight into the net at the far post.
With only five minutes to play Rec should have simply hoisted the ball upfield at every opportunity, but messing about at the back and playing back passes in their own box almost presented Mals with an equaliser.
Burgess caused a heart-stopping moment when he let slip a low cross from the left, but he reclaimed it immediately, and at the other end, just before the final whistle, an exquisite left foot McCloskey cross missed sub Kevin Monson’s head by a foot.
These three points were not easily earned against a well organised and mobile Malachians team, but any danger they did offer in the second half came about from Rec carelessness. Three different Rec players tried long square passes inside their own half, and on each occasion these were intercepted and put Rec on the back foot.
Once more Neil Magowan, enjoying a purple patch at present, was magnificent, and the return of Gareth Larmour adds an extra dimension at the back, so with these two and Ross Hegan and Peter Kelly all contributing, it says something about the efficiency of this Malachians team, in which Reid was outstanding, that they should have represented such a threat in attack.