Soccer Roundup Rovers slump in form continues

Forest Park 2, Rovers 0

With a 2-0 defeat by league leaders Forest Park, the Rovers first team showed no recovery from their recent slump in form.

The Rovers dominated early on, but could not take advantage of several chances. Brian Monahan and Mark Hopper were in control of the midfield, but Forest Park always had the pace to outrun the sluggish Rovers defense, and four minutes into the second half they broke away to take the lead.

Rovers threw on Dave Quigley to help the isolated Tony O’Donnell up front, and it almost worked, but the ball just wouldn’t break right. Frustration set in and Seth Morrison was sent off with two minutes left. Forest Park added its second with the last kick off the game.

Rovers Reserves 2, Forest Park 0

The Rovers Reserves played an excellent game to stay top of their division. After losing Paul McGlynn with a head injury, and Anthony Moran to a strange red card, Brian Bian took over the game and created the opportunity for Paul Kehoe to give the Rovers the lead.

Kehoe kept his nerve to chip the keeper quite brilliantly. Nial Coogan lost his footing when in front of goal, and goalkeeper Mick Carby kept the Rovers in the game, but late on Mick Kavanagh released Willie Dempsey, who beat three defenders before unleashing a left foot drive that nearly broke the net.

Massapequa over 30s 1, Rovers 0

The Rovers battled hard in a repeat of last week’s cup game, but again could not find the net. Alan Monahan battled hard up front but the supply of quality passes was lacking.

Massapequa dominated the midfield until Marshall McAdoo came into the game. McAdoo came close with a shot, and Peter Halligen was denied by a last ditch tackle, but when Des McLoughlin slipped and allowed a Massapequa forward in to lob Kieron Branagan, the game was over. Donal Quinn added width but coach Joe McGreevy must be looking to strengthen his squad over the coming weeks.

The Rovers are hosting a soccer trivia night on Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. in Flynn’s Inn, Sunnyside. Four players per team, $40 to enter. For information, call Paul Flynn at (718) 729-9720.

Shamrocks

The day began badly for the Shamrock’s, when the third team went down to Fenerbahce at Randall’s Island, by a score of 2-1.

A spectacular free kick by David Kennedy had the sides level for much of the game but with a minute to go, the Shamrocks were to suffer the wrath of yet another refereeing faux pas. The ref had seemed to have given an indirect free-kick, and a harsh one at that, inside the box, when goalkeeper Andy Marcoons, with the ball in his hands, turned to fend off an in rushing forward. Marcoon’s remonstrations probably merited a booking, but nowhere in the rules of association football does it say that the referee can upgrade his already made decision and award a penalty kick. This he did, the kick was converted and the game was lost.

The first and second strings travelled to the Bronx to play the high flying Albanians under lights, on the dreaded Astro-Turf surface.

The Albanians have proven extremely difficult to beat on, what is for them, familiar surface, so a daunting task faced both sides.

The seconds got the evening off to a flyer with a 3-1 victory. Niall Swan seems to have regained some of the hunger that made him such a vital cog in the promotion push last year and it was he that put the away team a goal in front.

The Albanians equalized before half-time, but two glancing headers, from Jim Campbell and the ever-improving John Walsh in the second period, won the day for the Rocks.

The still injury-ridden first team were forced to start the game with two players who had just performed for the second team. They did, however, open the scoring for the first time this season, when a John Guildea header came back off the crossbar and the ever-wary Terry Lawless was there to meet it and head home with twelve minutes going in the game.

The Albanians equalized on twenty seven, when a brilliant point blank save by stand in ‘keeper Paudie Moloney gained scant reward as it fell to the feet of Kovic, who knocked it home.

The sides began the second half tied at one, but it was here that we were to again see the great heart in this Shamrock team. Astro-Turf was never kind to diving headers and sliding tackles, but this, however, mattered little to the Shamrock back four who flung themselves around in almost Kamikaze fashion for "the cause". One casualty emerged from this approach though, when Ray Elsesser had to leave the field with a suspected broken collar bone, a major loss. Mick Haley replaced him and a few minutes later the excellent Paul Woodley had to leave when his tired legs could carry him no more. Paul had earlier played for the second team.

The Shamrocks held on for a deserved point and indeed could have sneaked the three when Ger Watson caught the ‘keeper in possession and knocked it back for Billy Henderson.

Henderson tried to place his effort but had it stopped on the line, and so the game ended 1-1. This great result keeps the Rocks well in contention for the title.