Season : 2014 / 2015 Back to 2014 / 2015 Fixtures Glenavon 1 Linfield 2 Date : 1st November 2014 Competition : Irish League Venue : Mourneview Park Referee : Meryvn Smyth Linfield scorers : Waterworth (20’); Callacher (84’) Glenavon scorer : Braniff (76’) Linfield returned to league action at the venue that had served as a temporary home during the European run earlier this season. The Blues were looking to bounce back after 3 straight defeats and rekindle the spirit of that run. Warren Feeney had rung the changes from last Saturday’s game against Crusaders. There were starts for Ross Glendinning in goal, Jimmy Callacher in defence and Sammy Morrow in attack. On the bench, there were notable appearances for Gareth Deane and a return to the match day squad for Jamie Richards. Jamie Mulgrew was handed the captains armband in Chris Hegarty’s absence. The home side started brightly and in the 4th minute Glendinning had to blow away the cobwebs, diving low to his left to block a Kyle Neil effort. Linfield responded with a good break of their own in the 5th. Ross Clarke’s flick found Sammy Morrow one on one with Blayney, but the former Linfield stopper showed his considerable talent to palm Morrow’s effort away for a corner. From the resulting set paly, a number of Linfield players were queuing up to score as Waterworth headed Burns’s corner back across the face of goal. Unfortunately however, the ball evaded everybody and was cleared. After 12 minutes, the game had settle down from a rather end-to-end start. Sean Ward drifted inside and hit a left foot drive from 25 yards, which Blayney did well to get down and block. In the 18th minute Glenavon fashioned the best chance of the game. Neil passed the ball to Singleton on Linfield’s left channel and Bradley and Neil exchanged a one-two and a pull back. Bradley with only Glendinning to beat, fluffed his lines and toe poked the ball wide. Linfield soon took the Lead however, following a touch of head tennis on the Linfield right. Aaron Burns headed a bouncing ball back in field towards Sammy Morrow, who did really well to cushion a headed through pass to Andy Waterworth. Waterworth was alert to the situation and ran through to finish brilliantly, first-time past Alan Blayney in the same goal he smashed Linfield to their famous victory against AIK. In the 31st minute some neat play from Burns and Waterworth nearly resulted in a second for the Blues. Burns flicked a long ball on to Waterworth who was tacked by McKeown. The ball ricochet back to Burns who quickly played a one-two with Waterworth. This sent Burns racing clear on goal but unfortunately his effort went wide of Blayney’s far post. There was a bit of a sideshow on the touchline in the 34th minute as Glenavon manager Gary Hamilton saw red. Hamilton seemed incensed by the award of a free kick to Linfield but his remonstrations with the officials were deemed inappropriate and referee Smyth was ordered over to brandish the red card. Stephen Lowry was pulling some strings in the midfield in the first half. In the 42nd minute, Lowry showed his power and determination to tackle the ball off his opponent and spray a lovely raking ball out to Ross Clarke. Clarke ran down the right and then played a clever pass back to Morrow, who hit it first time. As the ball seemed to bobble just be fore Morrow’s effort, the shot went high over the Lurgan Blue’s goal. Half Time: Linfield 1 – 0 Glenavon Glenavon got things underway for the second half. 3 minutes into the second period a mix up in the Linfield midfield sent Bradley through on goal. Glendinning raced out and managed to get the top of his thigh to Bradley’s shot and deflected the ball over the bar for a corner kick. In the 57th minute Mark Haughey’s heroic block prevented a Glenavon equaliser. A Glenavon corner was only half cleared by the Linfield defence. As the ball found its way to the edge of the Blues area Ciaran Caldwell was there to meet it on the full with an on-target powerful effort. Mark Haughey however instinctively stuck out a boot and deflected the effort over the bar. With Blayney looking flat-footed, Linfield came agonisingly close to adding the vital second goal in the 66th minute. Clarke floated a ball in from the right and with Blayney rooted to his spot Morrow nipped in front and just missed the cross with his head. Any sort of contact would surely have seen the ball nestle in the Glenavon goal. In the 76th minute a strange decision by referee Smyth saw Glenavon draw level. A penalty box scramble saw a Linfield boot deflect the ball back to Ross Glendinning who instinctively picked it up. The referee adjudged the boot to be a conscious effort to pass the ball back to Glendinning and awarded the free kick. To many of the observers from the stand, the ball back in no way looked like a pass back - more of a deflection from a tackle. It was bad luck all round for the Blues, as Kevin Braniff stepped up to receive the delicate tip on and hammer into the bottom corner; somehow past all 11 Linfield men on the line. In the 82nd minute Linfield restored their advantage. The Blues won a free kick on the left, and Stephen Lowry stepped up to whip it in with his right foot. Lowry’s cross was a belter, and one of those that is very difficult to defend against. With this in mind, the ball flicked off Jimmy Callacher’s head and flew into the net. Just desserts for Linfield, who were unfortunate to be just level. Moving into stoppage time a scuffle saw Seanan Clucas and Kevin Braniff both brandished red cards. Nevertheless, the Blues held on for a fine victory against an in-form Glenavon side. Full Time: Linfield 2 – 1 Glenavon Linfield Team : Ross Glendinning, Haughey, Callacher, Waterworth (87’ Clucas), Lowry, Burns, Ward, Morrow, Mulgrew, Quinn, R. Clarke (75’ Sproule) Linfield Subs not used : Deane, Richards, Millar Glenavon Team : Blaney, McKeown, Neill, Bradley, Dillon, Caldwell, Marshall, McNally, Braniff, McCabe, Singleton Glenavon Subs not used : Murphy, Kilmartin, Hamilton (s/o), McGrory, Martyn Post Match Interview : Warren Feeney on todays win at Mourneview
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:15:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015