Park came out on top of a scrappy, wind dominated encounter to go 5 points clear at the top of the Premier division.
In what was a pretty forgettable first half Camp and Franz in particular, caused plenty of problems for the Park boys and had the best effort of the half when a well struck shot from David’s hit the top of the crossbar. Michael Slattery and Sean Carmody had attempts on goal for Park but ultimately 0-0 at halftime was about as much as they deserved.
Park started the second half much brighter and opened the scoring after 10 minutes following a wonderful passing movement from one end of the pitch to the other. Dylan Casey passed the ball out to James Rusk on the right. He gave it to Dan Goggin who gave an excellent ball to Gearoid Fitzgerald. He in turn fed Robin McCarthy whose finish to the bottom corner of the net capped off a fine team goal.
14 minutes later, Park were two up. Gearoid Fitzgerald pounced on a Camp defensive mistake to lay on a simple tap in for Robin McCarthy’s second goal of the day.
Straight from the kick off Davidos did what he had threatened to do earlier. The ball was passed back to him and from 5 yards inside his own half, with the help of a strong wind, he unleashed a ferocious drive which just went in over the outstretched hands of Thomas Burke. Park were stunned but reorganised themselves well to just keep Camp at bay. Kevin Browne came on with 15 minutes to go and his vital, brave block two minutes from time ensured the three points for his team.
On a difficult day for good soccer, Dylan Casey at the back and Robin McCarthy upfront were the stand out performers for the Park but the determination of all the players to ensure they didn’t drop points was fantastic. They could have dropped their heads when things weren’t going their way. To their credit they don’t do that and they came away from a difficult encounter with the result they deserved.
Well done to the Camp players and management for a very sporting game.
Our best wishes to Niall and Jakub who missed the game through illness and injury. We look forward to having them and Ruairi back soon.
Panel: Thomas Burke, Adam Ward, James Rusk, Dylan Casey, Matt Lukco, Sean Carmody, Michael O’Gara, Michael Slattery, Dan Goggin, Gearoid Fitzgerald, Robin McCarthy, Kevin Browne, Jake Deering and Raul Vnczel .
Report by P.Carmody
