Albion suffered a second straight loss today after the referee put them up against a serious challenge. Villa went 1-0 up after 2 mins when a back pass by Darren Daly bobbled over Steve Dwyers foot on his clearance attempt, the villa striker played the ball across completely unmarked to their striker who tapped it in. Albion were back in it 5 mins later when Conan Dillon setup Tim Harrington for his 12th of the season. Harrington missed a chance to increase the lead when a ball over the top by Martin Ryan left him with just the keeper to beat. Ryan was given a straight red after 15 mins after some mouthing between him and one of the opposition led to the referee sending him to the stands(car). Albion upped their game and went 2-1 up through a great effort from Tim. Steve Dwyer was on hand to make a fantastic double save just after. 2-1 half time.
Albion didn’t look like they were in trouble at any stage of the second half with Conan and Ben Dillon bossing in centre mid. A high ball fell over Darren & Gers heads and landed to their striker who made it 2-2. Tim grabbed his hat trick with a converted penalty after he was taken down by the keeper in a one on one, though the ref decided not to show the keeper a card. The ball hit Jamie Dalys face minutes later and the ref, who was on the other side of the pitch, decided it was a handball. From the resulting free there was a goalmouth scramble which Albion looked to have cleared though Villa passed forward to their striker, who was standing on the goal line, and the ref decided there was no need to call an offside for whatever reason is probably best known to himself. Villa were then handed a free kick which caused another scramble but finished to win the game 4-3.
Besides the worst refereeing performance ever witnessed in any sport, Albion will have to take the positives and eliminate the negatives as they travel to in-form Banteer next Saturday.
Team: Steve Dwyer, Darren Daly, Jamie Daly, Colm O’Donovan, Ger O’Connell, JP Hayes, James O’Driscoll, Martin Ryan (RED CARD ’15), Ben Dillon, Conan Dillon, Tim Harrington.
subs. Noel Twomey, Troy dillon, Jody McNamara.