The Comeback Starts Here...

Ormeau Park, Sunday 12 January 2003, 1:30PM

Dub FC (0)2 Boca Seniors FC (0)1

"Dub were outplayed and overrun for most of the game but got a couple of jammy goals to take the points. Bastards!"

Dub continued their slow climb back to form with a hard earned victory in the mud bath of Ormeau Park. At the outset, a full squad of 14 players looked promising, but with only 8 Dub players on the pitch at 1:30pm, some stalling tactics with the referee were required. Eventually though, all Dub players got their socks on and it was game on. Dub won the toss, or at least we probably did - it was a bit hard to tell when the referee tossed into the muddy puddle in the centre circle.

Luckily the formality of the shaking the ref's hand had already occurred. Playing with the wind in the first half, Dub started cautiously, but soon brightened up. An early chance presented itself when a pinpoint accurate kick out from Sidewinder Gillen landed at Cormac's feet on the edge of the box. While the rest of the team prepared themselves for the restart from the centre, Cormac had other ideas, instead trying to take out a low flying aircraft only he could see. Determined Dub pressure produced a handful of half chances, culminating in the opener when Cormac sent a fierce shot past the Boca keeper. Boca picked themselves up after this setback, hitting the crossbar with a 20 yard drive not soon after. However, Liam was up to the task, using a cunning combination of his arse and a puddle to prevent the rebound going into the net. Just before the half time whistle, Sean D asked the referee to reconsider his opinion on a tackle- by producing an outburst more suited to a courtroom defense of a young offender than with playing the beautiful game on a Sunday. The colour yellow, as the referee explained, meant he wasn't changing his mind. And no appeals either.

Half-time 1-0.

Playing against the wind, Dub were pushed back at the start of the second half, before launching several promising attacks. In their first corner of the 2nd half, Shane Murphy delivered the much talked about (but seldom used) near post corner, for Phil to plant a text book header into the Boca net. Dub were now well on top and looked like comfortable winners. Cormac made a well timed run to give himself a sight of goal, but was unfortunately hacked down by an 8 stone weakling before he got a chance to shoot. However, Dub faded characteristicly in the last 10 minutes, conceding a goal to produce a tense finish. With just seconds left on the clock, Boca produced an unmissable opportunity as the Dub players languished in the mud. Luckily though, the Boca forward produced the miss of the season to hand the 3 points to Dub. At last!

Goals: Phil Doherty, C kernan

Official MOM: Shane McCusker

Subs: J Magee, K Hill, B Housty
subbed: S Doherty, P Doherty, J Quinn

Squad

Mark Donnelly, Liam Gillen, Michael Smyth, Shane Murphy, Mark Harvey, Sean Doherty (sub 70 mins), Liam McCollum, John Quinn (sub 45 mins), Shane McCusker, Kristian Hill (sub 70 mins), Cormac Kernan, Phil Doherty (sub 80 mins)

Subs

John Magee (45 mins), Barry Houston (80 mins)

Match Statistics

Goals	Cormac Kernan Phil Doherty
Assists	-
Yellow cards	-
Red cards	-
Man of the match	Shane McCusker