February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Conor Hunter, the Bhoys’ 20-year-old scoring ace, hit the winner five minutes from time after Michael Walsh (70th) had canceled out Mirek Sielczak’s 50-minute opener for the Poles.
Lansdowne (4-6, 12 points) won for just the fourth time in the 2004-2005 season but climbed off the bottom rung in Division One (East), now occupied by Koha (9). One team each from the East and West sections will go down at the end of the season.
“The lads put up a good performance; Paul Doherty did a lot of work during the break,” said reserve coach Sean Hall, giving his first-team counterpart props for the result.
Lansdowne can provide a major assist to Shamrock, who have yet to play this calendar year, by beating Rangers (2-5-2, 8). CPR are seven points ahead of the Rocks in the relegation zone in the East.
RESERVE DRAMA
Lansdowne’s reserves, second in the standings (4-3-3, 15), dropped two points on the stroke of full time when Michael Siwiec converted a penalty, earning Polonia a 3-3 tie.
The drama wasn’t confined to the scoring as Lansdowne finished with seven players, while the Poles had two players red-carded.
Enda Corr, Michael Rubothan and Brendan Moran connected for the Bronx Irish. Rafael Stefek (two) was the other Polish scorer.
CELTIC THRILLER
Metro Div. I rivals ASA McCarthy and Manhattan Celtic produced a seven-goal thriller at Pier 40 that ended with the latter surviving a late thunderbolt by hat trick hero John Davidson.
“He had a stormer,” raved McCarthy’s John Cassidy, whose side could have salvaged a dramatic point had Davidson’s 89th-minute screamer from outside the box not come off the Celtic goalie’s chest.
Davidson was on song all evening in the late match, twice shooting McCarthy ahead (10th, 35th) only to see Celtic reply through Michael Thomas (25th) and Keith Doyle (40th).
He completed his hat trick late in the second half with Celtic cruising on strikes by Roman Kalinin (65th) and Freddy Estribok (70th), and came close to leveling the score with his last gasp blast.
“The last 20 minutes, I thought we put a little scare in them,” Cassidy said.
The result preserved Celtic’s unbeaten record this season (7-0-1, 22) while vaulting them to the top of the table ahead of idle Central Park Rangers (19).
McCarthy remain second from bottom (2-5-1, 7), four points above Barnstonworth Rovers.
GAELS BLANKED
Astoria Gaels’ promotion hopes to the top flight suffered another blow when fellow contenders Banatul blanked them 2-0 in a Second Division fixture at the Verrazano Sports Complex. Avi (55th, 70th) hit a double for second place Banatul (6-1-1, 19) in the make-up game. Gaels (3-5-1, 10) fell nine points behind the Serbians and are separated from runaway leaders Kandia by 14 points.