February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Lansdowne coach Paul Doherty, nonetheless, saw a glimmer of hope in the 1-0 defeat at Randalls Island, coming on the heels of the 7-1 shellacking by Pancyprian Freedoms the previous weekend.
“They scored in a scramble after a corner,” Doherty said of the only goal of the match by Rovers’ John Salvucchi in the 50th minute.
“Conor Hunter went close, Dessie Beattie went close and Anderson Garcia went close,” he said, listing Lansdowne’s chances.
However, from all accounts, the Man of the Match was the club’s new Trinidadian shot-stopper Edwin Boney, who played a blinder.
“It should have been 8-0 but their goalkeeper was unbelievable,” said Rovers official Stavros Zomopolous.
“Fantastic!” echoed Doherty, quickly pointing out that the Rovers goalie had a cracker of a game, too.
Based on the team’s effort against Rovers, Doherty believes his men have turned the corner.
“It’s just getting better. The new players are starting to settle in. Next week we’ll be looking for three points,” he said.
Lansdowne’s next match is against Polonia at the Metropolitan Oval in Queens on Saturday (a 7 p.m. start).
LATE DELUGE
Anton Toner grabbed what turned out to be the Lansdowne seconds’ face-saver in a 6-1 rout in the reserve fixture.
“We matched them up until the 70th, then we had a man sent off,” observed reserve coach Aidan Corr.
The dismissal, with the two sides tied at 1-1, sparked a late deluge by Rovers.
GAELS CLIPPED
Astoria Gaels veterans Derek McKenna and John Rabbit couldn’t prevent a 4-2 loss to Central Park Rangers “White” despite each scoring in a seesaw match at Commodore Barry Field.
McKenna drew first blood in the Second Division encounter after 24 minutes, but CPR were level within two minutes when Matt Blumenstyk shook the net from a corner on the restart.
Blumenstyk struck again before the interval, a goal later canceled out by Rabbit (75th). It was to be Gaels’ last effort, as Naldo (85th) and Ghazi Alhajeri (87th) connected in the dying minutes to avenge the 4-2 defeat suffered by the CPR “Reds” to Astoria seven days earlier.
Gaels’ reserves were blanked 2-0.
GALLAGHER HAT TRICK
Adi Gallagher notched a hat-trick for Central Park “Red” in a 6-2 win over Banatul at the Metropolitan Oval.
Hakan Nizam, Creighton Mershon and Heino Oostergard were the other Red scorers, while Ardi Barbu and Constantine tallied for Banatul.
SHAMROCK CRUSHED
The over-30 Shamrock side was outgunned 5-2 by SC Eintracht in the Rocks’ first “B” Division game.
Eintracht led 5-0 courtesy of Tommy Strumpf (two), Randy Bressler, Torsten Holmes and Ronnie Goetz when Joe Behan and John Guildea (penalty) pulled back two late goals at the Metropolitan Oval.
Elsewhere in the Cosmopolitan League, ASA McCarthy went down 6-0 to FC Bulgaria at Wards Island to complete a futile day for Irish teams. Bobby Romanov (20th), Bohos (35th), Galin Andreev (44th, 60th, 78th) and Stefan Dimitrov (35th) scored.
Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter