Dub pay the penalty for poor performance

Cherryvale, Sunday 9 December 2001, 1:30PM

Brookvilla FC (0)5 Dub FC (0)1

This was a match that Dub FC will want to quickly forget. Dub beat Brookvilla in a friendly earlier in the season and they had hoped for a similar result in this league game. Sadly Dub's performance was well below the high standards they had set themselves in their inaugural season in the Belfast Sunday Premier League.

Manager, Cormac Kernan, admitted after the match that the club had suffered from the unfortunate timing of having it's Christmas dinner dance the night before a crucial match. "The fundraising night was great for team morale but sadly and perhaps understandably many of the players were below par on Sunday afternoon."

Dub got off to the brighter start and had at least four clear cut chances in the opening 10 minutes but a combination of last-ditch defending and poor finishing prevented Dub from building up an early lead. During Dub's early dominance Ryan McGaughey made a number of probing runs from midfield and Brian Gribben caused havoc in the Brookvilla defence but towards the end of the half the visitors gained control of central midfield and swung the match with two goals in the space of 5 minutes.

The first goal came from a incisive break down the left wing and the second goal came after Donnelly had fouled in the but was unable to save the resulting penalty. Dub started brightly in the second half and received a penalty after McGaughey had been fouled. The normally reliable Smyth shot high and over the bar. Soon after the ever-reliable Gareth Dickson arrived unmarked at the far post to head home his first ever goal for Dub FC.

Dickson's goal was to prove the only positive aspect to a thoroughly disappointing Dub performance. It sparked Brookvilla into action and they extended their lead with two quick goals. Dub introduced the talented Sherrard and Harvey but it was too little too late and there was an air of inevitability about Brookvilla's fifth and final goal.

Team: Donnelly, Doherty, Dickson, McCollum, Hill, McCusker, McGaughey, Quinn, Smyth, C.Kernan, Gribben

Subs: Harvey for Smyth (60), Sherrard for Hill (70) Booked: Doherty M.O.M: Dickson

Squad

Brian Gribbin, Chris Sherrard, Mark Donnelly, Michael Smyth, Mark Harvey, Sean Doherty, Liam McCollum, Gareth Dickson, John Quinn, Shane McCusker, Kristian Hill, Ryan McGaughey, Cormac Kernan

Subs

Match Statistics

Goals	Gareth Dickson
Assists	-
Yellow cards	Sean Doherty
Red cards	-
Man of the match	Gareth Dickson