This was our final game of the season, in which we were losing 2-0 at half time. With nothing but pride to play for, Keith’s rousing team talk at the break sparkled us into life! Just 7 minutes into the 2nd half, substitute Tshepo pulled one back with a sweet strike, followed 3 minutes later by another sweet strike – this time from Paddy Cook. Another impact player Frankie Nolan’s nice header from a Jeff De Castro corner in the 72nd minute put us in the lead, before Cian Hanlon (the third impact player) made it 4 (his first goal for VEC) and Paddy Cook’s second made it 5 with 10 minutes remaining. Despite a consolation goal by the home team in the dying minutes, it was a great 2nd half as we ran out comfortable 5-3 winners.
Archives
St. Mary’s (Sandyford) FC v VEC FC
Jeff De Castro (11) celebrates in the 20th minute after Tarjei Skaar connected with his free kick to score his first goal for VEC. Jeff’s sublime swerving shot in the 13th minute had cancelled out the home team’s opener in the 5th minute. But 2 minutes later they took a 2-1 lead and after Tarjei’s goal, they took the lead for the 3rd time in the 32nd minute. However, a severely depleted VEC team (with only 11 fit players) battled hard to retain parity, and went close a few times, only for St. Mary’s to score a fourth with just 5 minutes remaining!
VEC FC v Larkview FC
VEC were 1-0 up at half-time from this goal from Joey Byrne in the 20th minute. Larkview equalised 7 minutes into the second half and despite VEC creating a number of decent chances – not converted – the visitors took their breakaway chances around the hour mark, scoring 3 goals in a 22 minute spell. Having lost some key players through injury before that, did not help our cause, as we became a little dis-jointed. Antoine Daubigny pulled one back in injury time, but it was too late.
VEC FC v Harding IF FC 2nds
VEC win the penalty shoot-out 5-4 [Scorers: R. Newe, P. Meghen, Paddy Cook, Jeff De Castro, T. Skaar].
[Where Shield matches are played in a round-robin format and a group match is tied at the end of normal time, penalty kicks shall be taken to determine the “winner”. Each tied team in a drawn game will get one point in its group and the winner of the penalty shoot-out will gain an extra point].