Division 3: St.Josephs 3-2 Vale Wanderers
Vale, missing a few players, put in a lacklustre performance here and Joeys were happy to capitalise and pick up their first win of the season. Vale already missing a few lost striker Jesse Clarke to injury just 12 minutes in, Niall Townsend his replacement. The opening 20 minutes didn’t produce many moments of note with both teams guilty of some sloppy play, however on 22 minutes Eoin Dowling found himself through on goal but slid the ball just wide and a great chance went begging. On the half hour mark Vale did grab the lead as Eoin Dowling turned provider and put Townsend through on goal, he made no mistake as he slid it into the corner. Joeys were to grab an equaliser moments later as the ref allowed their striker to continue his run towards goal despite being in a clearly offside position, he latched onto the ball and put it past Vales Evan Tunstead. This gave Joeys a major boost and Vale furious at the decision dropped their heads allowing Joeys to grab 2 more goals before half time, one a massive slice of luck as Kieran “Nuggets” Collins saw his clearance ricochet off the back of a Joeys player and into the Vale net. HT 3-1
Vale came out stronger and dominated the second half. On 50 minutes they won a penalty, Dinny Byrne stepped up but struck his shot over the bar. Vale had a free kick on 65 minutes and Kieran Casey struck it beautifully into the top corner of the net, however, in another bizarre refereeing decision the ref disallowed the goal as he said the free was indirect despite giving no indication that this was the case prior to the free kick and not having his arm raised to indicate an indirect free. Vale continued to press and on 72 minutes Paddy Dowling pulled one back to give Vale a life line. Vale laid siege towards the Joeys goal and had a number of chances, the best of which was a header from Kieran Casey that went just over the bar, but just couldn’t grab the equaliser. FT 3-2
Best for Vale were Eoghan Dowling, Kieran Casey and Paddy Dowling.