McCusker's spectacular volley keeps Dub stay in Shield

Ormeau Park, Sunday 25 September 2005, 1:30PM

Athletico (1)1 Dub FC (1)3

The match day started like any other, meeting at one o clock at Cherryvale carpark for our shield game against Athletico.Team manager, Art "don't phone me to find out where the match is" Kernan, noting the lack of any opposition, realised the game was actually at Ormo Park. A mass exodus from Cherryvale followed, one car after the other, ranging from beautiful blue clio's to the not so beautiful urine coloured megane's.

The short 1 mile trip down the road was no problem for most of us, however Mc Cusker seemed to have a little difficulty navigating, and arrived 10 mins later exclaiming "look! I have some black socks......." The rest of the team looking confused being already kitted out in their bouncy, Lenor freshened DUB FC socks. Another professional approach from team manager Art "where are all the socks" Kernan.

The game then commenced, Dub getting off to a flying start. The ball headed through from Kernan, with Donal "look at my big balls" Mc Cann getting on the end of it to cheekily scoop the ball over the keeper into the net off the underside of the crossbar. All within 45 seconds, creating a new Dub FC record for the fastest ever shield goal. Well done Donal!
A superb start.

Athletico began to get into the game, hitting Dub on numerous counter attacks, Dickinson and Wallbanger at the back were immense, soaking up everything that came through the middle, with spudgun Murphy on the left and Price on the right of defence stopping their attacks down the wings (to a certain degree).
Ginger goalkeeping genius Gillan, made some solid saves, and was commanding at the back.

Dub had few chances in the first half, referee's man of the match Dickson, threaded a lovely free kick over the defense for Hodgkinson who fired just wide. Rendal had a half chance, snatching at the ball without much time also firing wide.

Some nice breaks down the wing provided a few crosses into the danger area where Phil "where am I playing today" Doherty and Cormac were unlucky to convert.

Mc Cann nearly got a second when the Athletico keeper threw the ball dangerously close into his own net. This was one of the other few chances created by the not so dangerous 1st half Dub team.
Most of Dubs other attacks ended with the final pass finding an Athletico Player resulting in Athletico breaking up the pitch, but without doing any damage.
A bad first half from Dub and it was all square going in at half time.1-1
Hill, the marauding midfielder came on in place of lefty Rendall for the second half.

The second half started a little sharper, dub playing up the hill, dreamt they were running in barnets again, Donal not liking the incline didn't make too many forward runs up the hill in the second half, just incase he showed us his technicolour yawn trick again.

Dub played the ball up the left wing with 50p head Mc Cann heading the ball, via Mc Cusker to Hodgkinson. The nippy striker broke up the wing like Linford, and provided a perfect cross to Kernan at the back post to volley into the net.
2-1 and Dub were on top again.

Dub kept the pressure on, creating many more chances that were either put wide or over, but the team was starting to work well together. Hodgkinson was taken off after missing another chance and replaced by Duff (52mins).
The Dub management called on Doherty to change positions again.......where to nobody knows!

Dub kept the pressure on, with Athletico getting few opportunities to shoot at Gillan. 66mins into the game came the decisive blow. A Dickson corner was headed out by one of the athletico defenders and what happened next was something special. Mccusker, closed his eyes and somehow caught the ball just right and smashed it into the back of the net, the shot too powerful for the Athletico keeper to handle. McCuskers school of volleying will be taking place every Friday night. This brings McCusker now joint 3rd overall leading Dub scorer with Micky Smyth.

Athletico created a few further chances hitting the crossbar and Gillan claiming one or two shots. Dub played out the last ten mins with Kernan missing a one on one and a couple of corners with not much effect. The whistle sounded and a relieved Dub breathed a sigh of relief.
A 3-1 win with a lot of work to do!

Squad

Liam Gillen, Shane Murphy, Mark Harvey, Gareth Dickson, Darren Price, Kyle Rendall, Kevin Duffy, Kristian Hill, Donal McCann, Shane McCusker, Phil Doherty, Chris Hodgkinson, Cormac Kernan

Subs

Match Statistics

Goals	Cormac Kernan Shane McCusker Donal McCann
Assists	Cormac Kernan Chris Hodgkinson
Yellow cards	Mark Harvey
Red cards	-
Man of the match	Gareth Dickson