Submitted on Sat 27 Jun 2015
It’s always a tough day when you play the most organised club in the Eastern Suburbs, and a team who have been the frontrunner over the last 10 years, but with a total of 16 players unavailable, some trepidation would have been understandable.
Yet all 3 Glebe teams entered the day with some optimism and that feeling grew with news filtering across to Hensley Athletic Field that the Glebe 3rd team had snatched a late 1-0 win against Dunbar in the 11am game. A very good result for the 3rds and a very positive start to the day.
During the reserves warm up however, some bad news struck – goalkeeper Sean Cummins had been held up pouring concrete out West and wouldn’t make it for the start of the game.
With our only other goalkeeper recouperating from knee surgery, the subsequent reshuffling caught the reserves off guard. Despite falling a goal behind early, some quick feet and sharp thinking from Mark Egan pulled Glebe back level at 1-1 when he lobbed the keeper after beating the offside trap.
Playing well and probably on top, Dunbar unleashed their most potent weapon – a 40 yard rocket like throw in which after several attempts, proved too difficult to resist. An ensuing scramble from one of these throw-ins saw Dunbar bundle the ball over the line despite some suspicion of hand-ball.
A cruel outcome for the reserves just before half time and despite their best efforts in the second half, they just couldn’t quite manage to claw back another goal.
On to the firsts and as the glorious winter weather continued, so too the first team desire grew, knowing that a win would throw them back into the play-off race.
Yet in a day for last minute obstacles, a late withdrawal meant some serious reshuffling and a need for Tom Leonard to ‘double-up’ after playing 75 minutes in the reserves game. Glebe’s best chance of the first half fell to big Tom, who inexplicably missed the target when a simple square pass would have allowed Liam Sweeney to score into an open goal. It was to be typical of most of Glebe’s efforts today, and with half time approaching Dunbar found a goal from a corner just 2 minutes before the break.
Some stern words at half time sparked a better second half performance, but with Glebe pushing for an equaliser they were hit on the counter attack and Dunbar pulled 3 goals ahead. A great finish by Peter Curran with 10 to go, followed closely by a penalty save from Sean Cummins, gave Glebe some hopes in the last 10 minutes, but in the end it wasn’t enough.
So well done to the thirds and hopefully the reserves and firsts can lift the game next week against Uni.
