1-0 to Dublin City, quite an evently-contested (as they say) match. My brother and I were twenty minutes late thanks to a caddish taxi driver who wanted his money's worth. The ref seemed to have taken a particular dislike to Terry Gleeson and kept giving fouls against him for high feet etc, usually on the flimsiest pretext. Portmarnock got round the back of City a few times in the first half, but didn't threaten all that much. I missed the only goal of the game after 61 minutes; the ball had gone out of play for a throw-in and I turned around to glance idly at the crowd, but spotted Eoin Hand and turned back just in time to see the ball rolling into the net and Alan O'Connor celebrating. My brother told me it was a good finish from the edge of the box.
Portmarnock had only two real chances in the second half; well, the first was a sequence of chances, which began with a Porto player racing through unmolested on the right of the DC penalty area. He squared the ball for one of his forwards, but the shot was scuffed and cleared off the line (I think by Wes Byrne.) It fell to another Portmarnock player, whose shot was well saved by Brendan Kennedy, but set up YET ANOTHER opportunity for an unmarked Porto forward six yards out, who somehow managed to hit the crossbar with a bizarrely-struck shot. The ball was finally cleared away. Towards the end, the #8 fired just over from 30 yards.
There was an unfortunate element of niggle in the match, not helped by the ref's incompetence. In the first half, the Portmarnock 'keeper stood with the ball at his feet for about 20 seconds without being charged; Robbie Farrell ordered Alan O'Connor to "let him keep the ****ing thing!" while a spectator called out "get on with it, we paid 10 euro for this!" Farrell was later taken off after a clash with the 'keeper.
Terry Gleeson (when not being pulled up for non-existent offences) came close with a long-range shot and a well-struck free, and Toccy should have sealed it in the last few minutes, when a quick DCFC break put him one-on-one with the keeper, who saved well.
The AUL is a picturesque location (not least because of the low-flying planes that pass directly over the pitch at five minute intervals), but it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. My brother had the bright idea of taking a homeward short-cut on foot, but after twenty minutes of none-too-safe tramping down a busy road, past fields of wheat and horses, we turned back and called a taxi from outside the complex. Robbie Dunne flashed me a suspicious glance as he was driven away.
An excellent report on the match. i thought we were very lucky to get away with it. I know its usual to slag off the ref but he really was brutal. The AUL complex is not great & the planes were very annoying. Skerries in the next round would be good!!
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