The Battle of the Fanzines had their rematch at half-time in Flancare Park on Saturday night during the Cup Third Round tie. Although the pitch was far bigger this time, allowing some semblance of football, the game was to end scoreless again, and a second replay may be needed to separate the two teams!
There was an embarrassing start to the match for the hosts when, after getting proper goals, an eL First Division player (Stevie Gavin) to ref and two linesmen, we realised there was no ball. Both sets of subs only had two balls between them (boom boom! :) :o ), and for some reason weren't too keen to part with one (boom boom!...I'll stop now!), but thematch was saved from an ignominious abandonment when one UCD player raced back into the stands to get a ball he'd brought down.
The game was 8-a-side this time, although chances were fewer than two weeks ago. Indeed, only one shot on target was recorded all match, which Pineapple Stu parried away rather than catch just to make things more interesting; the rebound was curled a yard or two wide to a considerable "Oooohhh" from the seemingly engrossed crowd. Longford again did most of the attacking but seemed confused by the notion of a "by-line" and UCD's goal-kick count was highly impressive - more impressive was the fact that I can now kick a ball 50 yards off the ground! :) Must be all that cycling of late. After toning down the kick-outs so they didn't go for a Longford goal-kick, UCD made a bit of progress, but not a lot. Indeed, the game was lower on excitement than the previous encounter to such an extent that the UCD subs actually bothered with their warm-ups this time, with Aaron McEniff so not caring taht he had to ask if there was any score mid-way through.
Ummm...not much more than that really! As the proper teams returned to the pitch, and the supporters dragged their goals away, there was considerable interest among the returning UCD players as to how the game had gone; at least the result inspired them to get a draw of their own in the Cup match!
UCD - Pineapple Stu; Schumi, John83, Bald Student; Neil, Simon; Kev Ryan; Harpo.
Att - c 500
