A ‘day to forget’ for nine man Whites as even manager is sent to the stands

After a drab opening period of play this game, between the Whites & high flyers Larne, eventually came to life on 19 minutes when a comedy of errors in the home defence allowed the visitors to take the lead.
Distillery's Kieran O'Connor and Larne's Eoin Gillan during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron/Presseye.comDistillery's Kieran O'Connor and Larne's Eoin Gillan during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron/Presseye.com
Distillery's Kieran O'Connor and Larne's Eoin Gillan during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron/Presseye.com

A headed soft back pass to the keeper from home skipper Darren Nixon seemed harmless but forced the Distillery home custodian Ryan McBride to come off his line to claim the ball.

Unfortunately, for the hosts, defender Marty Young wasn’t aware that the ‘keeper was on his way out and flicked another header to where he thought would make for an easy catch. Unfortunately this extra touch saw the ball deflect out of the way of the advancing ‘keeper who tried to recover but slipped in the process allowing Ciaran Murray to nip in and convert what must have been one of his easiest chances of the season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This fortuitous goal ignited the visitors and they almost had a second when on 30 minutes when a mistake allowed McMullan to fire goalwards only for McBride to tip the ball around the post for a corner.

The home relief, and McMullan’s despair, however were both short lived as from the resulting corner it was indeed McMullan on hand to head home to double the visitors advantage.

Shortly after this the red mist, which was to envelope New Grosvenor on the day, started to fall with home manager Tommy Kincaid sent off for allegedly abusing the officials, a situation that an angry Kincaid vehemently denied after the game.

Trailing 0-2 then at half time the Whites opted to change the pack a little at half time bringing on leading scorer Sean Southam for defender Colm Kirgan and it almost brought an instant impact as they had a glorious chance which unfortunately went begging following a miss by Keiran O’Connor.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

After this it was the visitors who looked the more assured and the more likely to secure the points. A well struck free kick from Stuart King was palmed over by McBride on 63 minutes but then on 72 it was as good as game over as another failure to clear by the home defence was punished by Murray who superbly drove a loose ball home into the net for his second and Larne’s third on the day.

A fourth goal soon followed as substitute Darren Stuart completed the rout on 78 minutes, however, the day was to get even worse for the hosts as, on 85 minutes, defender Stuart Thompson was dismissed for a second yellow card following a clumsy challenge.

Then on 90 minutes the ten men became nine as substitute Joe McDonnell, who was only returning from suspension, was given his marching orders following what the referee deemed to be a bad foul.

A truly horrible day then for Lisburn Distillery and one best placed in the folder “days to forget”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

LDFC team v Larne: McBride, Kirgan, Thompson, Young, Nixon, McIlhagga, Kopyt, O”Connor, Smith, Doyle, Jones

LDFC subs v Larne: McDonnell (for Doyle), Bingham (for Jones), Kane, Southam (for Kirgan), Short.

Related topics: