Few days too late but here’s my take on last Saturday’s draw with Bray. We took our time to get into the game, the fist 15 minutes was all Bray, the goal was coming and it arrived. We responded well though, Turner was causing a lot of trouble down the right, Duggan doing his usual marshalling job in midfield very well. Lynch came more into the game and our defence was finally given a break as we started to keep the ball much better. Dean Clarke was everywhere. He constantly made runs off the ball, looking to run onto through balls from Tracy, Duggan and Russell. Kanyuko actually gave a few superb over the top balls, mostly in the first half for Faherty and Turner to run onto. You could count on one hand the amount of times he gave away the ball in the entire 94 minutes, he was excellent, and couldn’t be faulted for either of McEvoy’s goals. The equaliser was well deserved, Clarke tucking away a lose ball after a Turner corner wasn’t cleared. It was another over the top quality pass from the afore-mentioned Kanyuko, that led to our second goal, flicked on by Faherty (i think) into the on-running Turner. He gave a nice delivery into the box for Faherty to finish sweetly on the half volley.
We continued to have the better of things after the break, well up until 70 minute mark. Clarke continued to run his legs off, Lynch had a few efforts from long range. Turner was still doing well down the right. Probably didn’t test the keeper enough though and started to tire in the last 20 minutes. Hall made a couple of smart saves, Robbie Williams made one great block in particular to save an almost certain goal. No surprise when they equalised though, we couldn’t clear the ball, as it ping ponged around the 18 yard box. Nice finish from McEvoy to be fair. Rainsford actually did well when he came on, and ran at the Bray defence. He had the last chance of the game, but his header lacked the power to make it past keeper Cherrie.
What struck me was the confidence we now possess, we’re playing lovely stuff and fear nobody. Still leaking goals like mad but also well capable of creating chances and scoring. Derry, Galway and Rovers are games we simply have to win if we want to finish second bottom or higher. Hard to see us getting anything from Sligo on the last day or Dundalk next Saturday. I’m really enjoying Limerick FC now though, not just because results are better, the whole atmosphere in the club has changed - Pat’s investment in youth teams, the Bruff academy, being back home in Markets Field. It feels right, proper, it’s somewhere we as fans can look forward to going to.
We really need to stay up though. Christ if we do, we can really drive on from there. Go down and we’ll have to start from scratch again.
