Lordswood 3 Hollands & Blair 1

Match 33/17/1483 - Wednesday, 20th September 2017 - SCEFL Premier

Lordswood (1) 3 Orome 19, Wells 55 (pen), Mahon 84
Hollands and Blair (1) 1 McDonald 43
Attendance: 101

Entrance: £3.50 Senior
Programme: £1
Mileage: 35/1,897

I will make a couple of observations that Lordswood's pitch looked as resplendent as I have ever seen it and ask the question are to what was actually going through the mind of Hollands and Blair's goalkeeper, Ronan Forde, when he launched a kick at the rear end of a Lordwood striker. The rest of this post is an unashamed cut and paste from Richard Day's report for Hollands website. Time restrictions being my excuse.

The predatory James McDonald bagged his sixth goal of the season but it couldn't prevent Blair slipping to their first ever defeat against neighbours Lordswood in seven attempts, including friendlies.

The 3-1 victory at Martyn Grove took Lords top of the SCEFL table as individual errors again cost Blair, who had keeper Ronan Forde dismissed, any chance of at least a share of the points.

After a quiet opening it was the home side that broke the deadlock in the 20th minute when Jack Mahon harrassed Lewis Taylor into a mistake and Helge Orome was able to stroke the ball home.

It seemed that a majority of the 102 crowd were cheering when Blair deservedly equalised just before the break, McDonald nipping in between the Lordswood rearguard and keeper Ryan Chandler to roll the ball home.

Early in the second-half McDonald saw a superb curling effort that looked destined for the top corner until Chandler made a fine flying save.

At the other end Forde made a good block to deny Jordan Wells but then fumbled a Tom Carter corner but Blair managed to eventually clear after a goalmouth scramble.

I'm not sure whether that was still on the Irishman's mind but moments later he retaliated to a Wells challenge which was spotted by assistant referee Dan Friar who brought the incident to referee Valentine Anekwe. He not only brandished a red card but awarded a penalty.

After a short delay boss Bryan Greenfield, playing his first game of the season, took over the gloves but was beaten by Wells resultant spot-kick.

Even then Blair looked to keep playing football and the home outfit were unable to really get a grip on the game until they added a third with six minutes remaining. Offside appeals were ignored as Mahon touched the ball home from close range after Liam Newton had fired a shot across the face of goal.

There was still time for McDonald to test Chandler once again but the keeper made another great tip over to keep out the striker's header from Michael Jenner's free-kick.