Albions luck was spent after 5 minutes of a disappointing day against Blackpool Celtic. The game was moved to Eli Lilly as Ballinadee was only 80% playable due to bad drainage at the bottom goal. Albion could have been 3 up after 3 minutes when Tim Harrington and Rob Daly saw their early chances brilliantly saved by an in-from Blackpool keeper. With 8 minutes gone on the clock the ball was hoisted high towards Steve Dwyer in the Albion goal, when the ball dropped it hit Colm O’Donovan in the hand, the ref let play go on as the Blackpool striker raced past Declan Murray who conceded a penalty when he clipped the strikers ankle. 1-0 Blackpool. They were soon 2-0 up completely against the run of play from some neat counter attacking down the left saw a ball float in and brilliantly finished into the top corner. Albion weren’t lacking in chances as Tim, Rob & James all saw more and more chances saved or go just wide. Albion were quite obviously the team in charge but couldn’t make it count. 2-0 at half time.
The second half was more of the same though Albion did find the back of the net after a corner was half cleared and landed at JP Hayes’ feet who cooly finished to make it 2-1 with 25 to go. Albion had more and more chances but nothing was happening for them. Blackpool went 3-1 up, though the ball had gone a few feet out over the sideline, Blackpool failed to call the throw in and played on. Some nice one touch ball saw a cross come in and finished excellently with a header Stevie D could do nothing about. Albion then took introduced Troy Dillon for Dan Galvin switching to a 3-4-3 in search of badly needed goals. They could have been 4-3 up in the last 5 minutes when Tim & Troy both missed another few chances.
Once again, one of those days. Though Albion are still in a strong position in the league. This was a game Blackpool knew they needed to win and so they did as the luck seemed to be all on their side on the day.
Team: Steve Dwyer, Darren Daly, Jamie Daly, Colm O’Donovan, Declan Murray, JP Hayes, James O’Driscoll, Dan Galvin(Troy Dillon ’68), Conan Dillon, Rob Daly, Tim Harrington.
Subs. Martin Ryan, Ben Dillon, Dan Coleman.