February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
In the Bronx Irish Soccer League, the Southbend turned in a typical playoff performance when dumping Fiona’s, the top seed, out of the league semifinal by a one goal margin.
While it would be a stretch to call the Southbend’s style of football pretty, it is certainly effective, as they showed on Saturday.
The winners opened the stronger with Anne Murray having a few chances that were just wide of the target.
As Fiona’s got to grips with the game, their best chance came from a shot by Marie Curran who was denied the opening score by a diving save from Alison Lineen.
Fiona’s concentrated on feeding the ball to Ger Mahon and Erin Tracy who were unable to break down the defensive wall that they faced where Caroline Conway and Maureen Tuohy were particularly impressive.
A switch by the Southbend enabled Helena Campion to assert herself in midfield and it was her pass, threaded through to Kathy McKenna, that set up the game’s only goal. McKenna made no mistake when she gathered herself on the edge of the box to drill the ball past Rose Dunican. Were it not for Dunican, the scoreline would have been less kind to Fiona’s as she then saved three times from Linda Higgins, whose presence was causing several problems for Fiona’s defense.
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Lansdowne beat Béal Bocht
The Southbend now face the Lansdowne A in a battle for supremacy on Broadway as the latter squeaked through with a 1-0 win over An Beal Bocht.
The winners had a couple of first half chances from Sadie Bolger and Kate McGrail but Lisa Rowe kept her goal intact and Beth Higgins broke down much of the play.
While enjoying plenty of offensive possession, an Beal Bocht’s downfall was their failure to create goal opportunities and they paid the price when unable to recover from a Fiona Ward goal.
The vital goal came right after the break when a pass from the right found an unmarked Ward who slid the ball past the outstretched hand of Rowe which proved sufficient to ensure the win.
Looking ahead
The Starting Gate defeated the Parlour Moms 2-0 to reach the Shield final where they face the Lansdowne B at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday in a game that could go either way.
The League final at 1 p.m. has the Lansdowne A as paper favorites but as they have proven on numerous occasions the Southbend are a team for the big day. The Lansdowne will not be allowed time to dwell on the ball which could disrupt their game and give the Southbend a window of opportunity.