Renwick 4 – 2 Bar Staff

Match Report by Philip Dunwoody

Renwick began their Belfast Super League campaign with a solid performance and three points this week against the unfamiliar opposition of Bar Staff. It was the third win in a row for the team, and continued their unbeaten start to the season, so the RP lads had every reason to walk off the Ozone pitch thoroughly satisfied with their performances so far this year.
Having struggled to field a team last week, we were spoilt for choice this week (relatively speaking). Ian Buchanan was once again a late addition to the squad, along with new player Sean Sorohan. Joel Loughridge found himself with a free afternoon and also jumped on the Renwick bandwagon for the day, and provided a good option for referee in the first half! Andy McKelvey returned and partnered Conor in midfield, with Gavin moving to left wing. Steelo moved back upfront and Robert McCollum played in centre back and gave another great performance alongside Steve.
We knew little about our opposition this week, since they didn’t manage to get a team together for much of last year. We last played them in November 2006, back when no one had heard of Barack Obama and Robbie Keane was a prolific goal scorer, but they were a physical team and seemed up for the game. We put them under pressure early on though, and soon realised that what they had in size they lacked in skill. They had a huge back four but they weren’t comfortable on the ball, and very early on Steelo and Mark were forcing errors and came close to rounding the ‘keeper. Similarly in midfield there were plenty of tough challenges for the ball, but Bar Staff couldn’t string their passes together and cause us problems at the back. Three minutes (thanks Joel!) into the game Mark finished off a well worked move and beat the ‘keeper with a good strike to put us in the lead. Then we got a corner on the left that Phil swung in towards the near post – several flicks and missed headers, plus an effort from Gav that may or may not have been the decisive touch, led to the ball nestling in the back of then net and we were, deservedly, 2-0 up after fifteen minutes.
At this point we continued our usual trick of taking the foot off the pedal instead of putting the game beyond our opposition. They didn’t put Jonny under any pressure – our back four made sure of that – but we didn’t trouble them too much either. Mark had a great shot across the face of goal saved by the ‘keeper, and Gavin and Andy McKelvey went close, but we didn’t score again before the half.
Bizarrely we found ourselves playing for half time, and five minutes before the break we failed to clear the ball after some good play by Bar Staff, and after Gav got caught in possession they fired a good strike into the far bottom corner. It was 2-1 at half time.
We made two changes at the half; Sean came on for Phil to make his Renwick debut in midfield, with Conor moving to right wing, and Ian replaced Steelo upfront. We started the second half in much the same way as we started the first, and after ten minutes Gav got the ball at his feet on the edge of the box and hit a great curling shot into the top right hand corner. It was a great finish, again a fair reflection on the game, and it gave us more confidence to take the game to them once again. Once again however we couldn’t build on our lead, and ten minutes after Gavin’s goal they had pulled one back, when we didn’t deal with a throw-in and they capitalised on the ensuing goal-mouth scramble.
The game went a bit flat after this, and lost its urgency. Phil came on again for Gavin, and Joel made a cameo appearance at the back in place of Andy Morrison. About ten minutes from the end we put the game beyond their reach, when we got a throw in deep in their half, which put their keeper under pressure. Mark smacked in his thirteenth goal of the season from close range and it finally looked like the end of the debate. Joel and Robert came closest to adding to our lead – Joel from a header, after he surged upfield in the hope of a goal on his return, and Robert when he went on a majestic run from right back but opted for safety first in front of goal! Mark also had a number of chances, but had to settle for just the two goals this week.
So, another victory, and a good start to the league campaign. The good news is we’ve already played five of the ten other teams in the league and are yet to lose, so we should be confident of our chances in the league this year. Andy McKelvey gave a man of the match performance and Sean gave a solid debut and will provide a good option for us in the coming weeks. A good week’s work lads, not that anyone is likely to comment on it on this website…!

Team (4-4-2): J.McCollum – A.Morrison (for J.Loughridge), R.McCollum, S.McCollum, A.Lynch – P.Dunwoody (c) (S.Sorohan), C.Hyndman, A.McKelvey, G.Blackwell – M.McCavery, S.Steele (I.Buchanan)

Photos and annotations courtesy Naomi:

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Yeah, just laugh at the new guy…

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It’s clearly over me – though as Jonny says it looks like I’m on Crimewatch or something…

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Gavin denied-a-hattrick-by-a-clearance-off-the-line-well

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Emmaline and Naomi providing a photo in the hope of winning fans of the year…

4 thoughts on “Renwick 4 – 2 Bar Staff

  1. I like the way it looks as though Im just blatantly elbowing that guy in the face in one of the pics, lol. If I had at least it would have been one contribution to the game :P

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