This article is from page 71 of the 2009-03-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
AVENUE United must now be won- dering what they have to do to get back on track in the league – a few short weeks ago everything looked rosy in their garden on the strength of back-to-back wins over Bunratty, but since then they’ve only picked up one point from a possible six.
That point came in this game, but it looked like being all three until Eoin Hayes struck for an equalising goal two minutes into injury time to deal Avenue’s league title hopes another big blow.
They looked to have secured all
three points when substitute Davide Ghilardi put them 2-1 ahead with six minutes remaining, but the final twist of an entertaining morning’s action between these two old rival was pro- vided by Hayes who latched on to a long ball from Mike O’Malley and lobbed Simon O’Donnell to give the champions a share of the spoils.
It should have come to this for Avenue – they had the better of this game for most of the 90 minutes, but paid the price for not taking their chances.
The first goal did come Avenue’s way in the 30th minute when Gary Flynn’s free kick from near the end-
line was met on the half-volley by Eamonn O’Reilly on the edge of the six-yard box.
Avenue were full value for the 1- Q half-time lead, but three minutes after half-time were rocked back on their heels when Newmarket levelled up proceedings.
In what can be loosely termed a goalmouth scramble, the ball was de- flected to the net by the combination of Newmarket’s Monty Mulqueen and Avenue’s Anthony Whyte.
Avenue didn’t dwell on their mis- fortune though and a bought of heavy pressure eventually reaped dividends when a great run by David Smythe down the left saw him centre the ball to Davide Ghilardi who dispatched the ball to the net from eight yards. Three minutes later Bratislav put Ghilardi in on goal, but the French- man’s effort just went over the top – a miss that came back to haunt Avenue when the impressive Hayes struck for his dramatic equaliser.