Match report Moyola Park 5 Lisburn Distillery 2 – 29/02/20

Moyola Park v Lisburn Distillery – Premier Intermediate League (PIL) 29/02/2020

Lisburn Distillery made the journey to Mill Meadow on Saturday to take on Moyola Park, Mervyn Pattison’s side having won the previous fixture between the sides pre-Christmas in a game Whites fans were left scratching their heads wondering how we failed to win with the chances created.

Manager Stephen Hatfield made two changes to the side that had been beaten 3-1 by Banbridge the week before, Andy Long and Mikey Withers made way for Jack Clarke and debutant Sean Gallagher.

The game got off to the worst possible start for Distillery in blustery conditions when with little over a minute played a Moyola cross from the right hand side found Chris Dowie in space at the back post and the experienced striker fired home a cracking first time shot past Jonah Nicholl to put the home side ahead.

Distillery initially responded quite well to the early setback and perhaps should have been level after four minutes when a good touch by James Begley sent him clean through on goal but the former Bangor man perhaps held onto the ball to long and found himself crowded out by defenders, the recent signing did manage to hold onto the ball and get a shot off but was denied by Moyola ‘keeper Dwayne Nelson.

Nelson was called into action twice more in the opening ten minutes when firstly he held a Begley shot from range and then was alert to the danger after some good link up play between Barry Moore, Begley and Paul Young.

Things quietened down a bit after this with the only real efforts of note being a Dowie effort fizzing wide of Nicholl’s left hand post and a Timmy Clarke free kick being held by Nelson but the second goal of the game did eventually come for the home side after 30 minutes.

Daniel McIlhatton tried his luck with an effort from range that was pushed around the post by Nicholl but from the resulting corner Moyola skipper Stephen McQuillan fired home a bullet header giving the Whites young stopper no chance.

The closing 15 minutes of the half were largely dominated by the home side with Nicholl being called into action to save an effort from Moyola talisman Tiarnan Rafferty but out of nowhere the Whites found a way back into the game when on the stroke of half-time an effort from outside the box from debut boy Gallagher took a deflection and beat Nelson to halve Moyola’s lead going into the interval.

Half-time: Moyola Park 2-1 Lisburn Distillery

The Whites came out for the second half hoping to build on their late goal in the first half and things did start more positively for Hatfield’s men but they were unable to put any real pressure on the Moyola goal. There was an appeal for a handball when a Young cross was blocked by a Moyola defender but the referee and linesman, who was in a good position in fairness, were unmoved by the appeals.

The Whites good start to the half came undone in the 58^th minute when Nicholl played a goal kick short to Mark Stewart and the defender played the ball back to the ‘keeper but Dowie was able to nip in and help himself to his second goal of the game.

At that point it appeared to be game over but Hatfield did make a change of personnel and shape with just over 20 minutes remaining, Alex Weir replacing Chris Getty to make his debut.

The change almost had an instant impact when, after some good build up play down the right, James Wright was able to get a shot off from outside the area after being setup by Aaron Harris but the path to goal was again denied by Nelson.

Moyola added their fourth goal of the game in the 72^nd minute when Stewart was unable to get his foot to a cross from the right hand side and despite the best efforts of Nicholl he couldn’t prevent Dowie from completing his hat-trick.

The Whites managed to reduce the deficit with just over 10 minutes left on the clock when Nelson was unable to claim a cross from Weir and Young was on hand to nudge the ball over the line. Moments later Distillery had a second appeal for handball, this one looking more certain than the first, but once again the referee again waved away the appeals.

The final nail was put in the coffin in injury time when Rafferty made it 5-2 after Nicholl was able to block an initial effort on goal but couldn’t get his hands to the ball to prevent the second.

All in all a miserable day for everyone involved with the Whites, making it two negative results on the bounce against sides we would have hoped to take maximum points from. It doesn’t get any easier with an away game coming up against table toppers Annagh next and then a tricky home game against Dollingstown.

Report by Cameron Moore

Full-time: Moyla Park 5-2 Lisburn Distillery

Lisburn Distillery; Nicholl, T. Clarke, Getty, Stewart, Moore, Harris, Gallagher, Young, Wright, Begley, J. Clarke

Subs; Long, Grattan, Irvine, Dillon, Weir (for Getty, 68)

David Hunter’s full picture gallery from this game can be found @ https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLM19vX