Daily Mirror Amateur Premier League

Resurgent Rec Dismantle Mals

Malachians  0  :  3  Comber Rec 

Noel Spence reports 

The large band of loyal Comber Rec supporters who made their way to Greencastle’s Stadium of Sand on Saturday to watch their team’s league encounter with Malachians were understandably apprehensive about the outcome following the manager’s resignation earlier in the week. Would a demoralised Comber side be easy pickings for a full-strength home team anxious to get back on track following the previous week’s cup drubbing at the hands of senior opposition? The answer from Rec was not only a display of spirit and commitment that saw them canter to a convincing and comfortable 3-0 win, only the second of the season, over a disappointing Mals side, but evidence of a shape and purpose in their performance that has been missing all too often from the beginning of the current league programme.

The absence of Gareth Larmour with a knee injury was bad news for Rec fans, but the return of Peter Kelly after suspension and the reappearance for the first time this season of popular Neil Magowan served to counterbalance the loss. Magowan rewarded the expectations on the sidelines with a power display until an enforced departure late in the game.

Right from the opening whistle Rec looked like a team with a point to make, with something to prove, and in the first quarter of an hour they had three clear scoring chances in front of goal. As early as the 8th minute the ball broke to Michael Henderson fifteen yards out but he snatched at the chance with his left foot and sliced it well wide. Who could have predicted that the striker, yet to open his account for the first team, would emerge after ninety minutes as hero with two goals and the Man of the Match award.

With twelve minutes played and Rec very much on the offensive young Kevin McClory cut inside his marker on the left and flashed over a centre that Magowan failed literally by inches to touch home with his head, and on the quarter hour following a corner Rec fired another clear scoring opportunity over the top.

To their credit, Mals gradually started to get their passing game going and showed well in the build-up, with Lowe prompting repeatedly on the right, but they lacked penetration against a visiting rearguard in which Kelly, Jeffreys and Johnston never missed a tackle and dominated in the air.

Rec deservedly went ahead after 25 minutes, with a piece of good fortune. Henderson saw his shot blocked by the keeper who fell in the process, and when the ball spun high in the air it fell in front of the vacant goal and Henderson followed up to prod it into the empty net.

The remainder of the half followed a consistent pattern. Mals played pretty football in midfield but made no impression on an uncompromising Comber defence, while Rec used the pace of Ryan Oliver down the right flank to trouble the home defenders on the break out.

Just before the interval whistle McAtee was nicely set up with a quick through ball but blasted his drive well over Jason Mooney’s crossbar.

Malachians came out in the second period ready to do business and forced a number of corners, one of which led to a scramble in the box and the ball cleared off the Comber goal line. It appeared for a spell that Rec were going to be under severe, continuous pressure, but as every home attack was crowded out fairly easily, the threat of an equaliser grew fainter and fainter.

Rec’s ploy of playing Henderson up front to hold things up and lead the line worked a treat, and he ran himself into the ground winning lost cause balls and making himself available for through passes from midfield or cross balls from the sides.

A novel feature of Comber’s game was their readiness to shoot on sight, to have a go, a policy that on two occasions in quick succession came very close to producing results. In the 65th minute Henderson, 30 yards out, pivoted and unleashed a surprise snapshot that sailed only a yard outside the right post, with keeper Logan stranded well off his line. Two minutes later Oliver repeated the act with a 20 yard ground strike that zipped just wide, the keeper again a helpless onlooker.

Exactly on the 70th minute Rec pulled further ahead with a spectacular goal. A free kick was awarded 25 yards out and both Kyle McQuillan  and Keith Dougherty lined up to take the set piece, but it was Dougherty who struck it perfectly over the wall and high into the top left corner, the ball glancing off the underside angle of upright and crossbar and dropping into the net. The jubilation of the players after the goal was matched by the excited belief among the supporters that finally their team was going to win three league points.

Mals saw the game slipping rapidly away but their substitutes couldn’t break the defensive stranglehold, not even when Magowan hobbled off with a foot injury.

Ten minutes from time Rec put the icing on the cake with a great goal. Oliver picked up a loose ball on the right just inside the Malachians half, beat his man for speed, came inside and squared a cross ball that Henderson hooked clinically home from the edge of the area.

Minutes later Oliver himself almost capped a fine display with a goal when he again cut inside his marker and fired in a left foot shot that came off the top of the crossbar.

The game ended with Mals going forward but well beaten, and the Rec team cheered off by their delighted fans. As always, Malachians showed themselves a sporting team and their officials wished Rec every success for the rest of the season ahead.

One swallow does not indeed make a summer, and Comber Rec have an uphill struggle to stay afloat in the Premier division, but for their long-suffering supporters it was enough on Saturday just to taste victory and not come away on the wrong end of the result.  

Fixtures

Comber Rec are away to Dromara Village on Saturday in a league game, with a 2pm start.