Comber 0 Willowbank 2
Yet again with a re-jigged back four Comber started the game fairly slowly against their table topping opponents. Willowbank forced a succession of corners early on, which Comber were able to scramble away. Indeed it seemed only a matter of time before, Willowbank took the lead.
However once this early storm had been weathered Comber gained confidence and looked strong themselves, with both Coulter and Milligan doing well in midield. Wilson too was proving a handul to the Willowifeld defence. The rest of the half was closely fought, with Willowbank getting more and more frustrated. Walker, and in particuler Rodney were proving more than capable holding off the opposition attacks.
No changes were made at halftime, and Comber continued tp play well making good scoring chances themselves, with Coulter hitting in great corners, but unfortunately with no end product. Willowbank were creating very little, in fact for most of the game Rosbotham had little to do. Comber were looking very comfortable. All this was to change midway through the half, when Walker produced a trerrific sliding tackle to deny the Willowbank striker. The ball was picked up by Rosbotham. Unbelievably the referee judged this to be a back pass and a freekick was awarded in the box. Worse was to follow as the referee allowed the kick to be taken three times. On the third attempt Willowbank scored. Comber were gutted, and couldn't believe the ref decision to firstly award a free kick in the first place and then to allow the kick to be taken so many times. A few minutes later Moore had a great chance to equalise, but failed to make enough contact with the ball. Then Comber should have been awarded a penalty kick, when Milligan was clearly brought down in the box. yet again, the refs decsion went against Comber. Just before the end Comber failed to defend a throwin, and were 2-0 nil down. The game ended, with Comber having played their socks off but to no avail. It is fair to say that everyone connected to Comber felt very "disappointed" with the referees bizarre decisons but what can you do?
A superb performance by the Comber boys, and lets hope for more of the same against Antrim in quarter finals of Knockout Cup next Saturday.
Team : Rosbotham, Rodney, Walker, Clarke, Magee, Moore, Milliagn, Coulter, Wilson, Dulop a, Clifford.
Subs : (Not used) Martin, Patmore, Dunlop J, Kalkerts.
MOM: Rodney/Coulter.
