Match Report: Seaford Rock United 3-0 Stella East Wall
LSL Saturday Premier 1
Collie Barrett slots home a penalty to make it 3-0
Seaford got off to a winning start in Premier 1 with a comprehensive victory at Rockfield Park.
The visitors had done the league double over Seaford during the first half of the previous campaign, but Dunner's men are a different proposition during 2019 and they were well worth the three points, even if their task was aided by two second half red cards to the Northsiders.
The opening period was low on goalmouth action. Seaford largely controlled the match and had the best chance of the half early on when Francis Mulhall picked out debutant Matteo La Placa with a fine through-ball, but the Italian fired inches wide. After that, Seaford had plenty of the ball, probing patiently, but couldn't open up the black defence, whilst at the other end, keeper Robbie Moran was largely a spectator.
Seaford stepped it up a gear after half time. Stephen Kelly made an impressive burst from defence through midfield before picking out Peter Tierney, who spun on the edge of the box before shooting just wide.
It was only a matter of time now, with La Placa agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock, meeting Mulhall's cross at full stretch but diverting it just past the post. before Stella's Darren Molloy was given his marching orders, picking up a second yellow card.
It got much worse for the men in black on 62 minutes. Cian McGuinness produced a fine slide-rull pass to put Collie Barrett, in on goal. He rounded keeper James Collier only to see a defender clear his shot off the line, only for Tierney to fire the rebound towards the top corner. Dillon Kelly handled it on the goalline, soon joining Molloy in an early bath, and although Collier got a good hand to Tierney's penalty, it found the net for this first Seaford goal in more than a year.
Seaford maintained to see out the match in comfortable fashion. Fullback David Mackey was prominent in taking advantage of the space in front of him, and he played a role in the crucial second goal, finding Alex Smirnoff, who cut inside to set up fellow substitute Harry Crowe for a simple finish.
The men in maroon threatened to run riot, with Mackey laying Barrett in, but although the arch poacher did brilliantly to evade the last defender, his lob dropped just over the bar, before Mackay himself was denied by Collier's fine reaction save, and the tireless Chris Monk crashed a header against the bar. Barrett had the final say, converting a penalty he won himself to round out the scoring
Seaford: Robbie Moran,, David Mackey, Gavin Walsh (Steve Kane, 67), Cian McGuinness, Stephen Kelly , Chris Monk, Francis Mulhall (Keith Newman, 83), Matteo La Placa (Mikey Kane, 70), Conan Murphy (Alex Smirnoff, 76), Collie Barrett, Peter Tierney (Harry Crowe, 72)
Stella East Wall: James Collier, Dillon Kelly, Robert Kelly, Keith Bryan, Josh O'Reilly (Darren Ward, 79), Jordan Bates (Karl Murphy, 66), Anthony McDonnell (Ryan Savage, 66), Richard Nugent, Kian Doran, Darren Molloy, Daryl Conroy
Rockfield Park, 17 August 2019
The visitors had done the league double over Seaford during the first half of the previous campaign, but Dunner's men are a different proposition during 2019 and they were well worth the three points, even if their task was aided by two second half red cards to the Northsiders.
The opening period was low on goalmouth action. Seaford largely controlled the match and had the best chance of the half early on when Francis Mulhall picked out debutant Matteo La Placa with a fine through-ball, but the Italian fired inches wide. After that, Seaford had plenty of the ball, probing patiently, but couldn't open up the black defence, whilst at the other end, keeper Robbie Moran was largely a spectator.
Seaford stepped it up a gear after half time. Stephen Kelly made an impressive burst from defence through midfield before picking out Peter Tierney, who spun on the edge of the box before shooting just wide.
It was only a matter of time now, with La Placa agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock, meeting Mulhall's cross at full stretch but diverting it just past the post. before Stella's Darren Molloy was given his marching orders, picking up a second yellow card.
It got much worse for the men in black on 62 minutes. Cian McGuinness produced a fine slide-rull pass to put Collie Barrett, in on goal. He rounded keeper James Collier only to see a defender clear his shot off the line, only for Tierney to fire the rebound towards the top corner. Dillon Kelly handled it on the goalline, soon joining Molloy in an early bath, and although Collier got a good hand to Tierney's penalty, it found the net for this first Seaford goal in more than a year.
Seaford maintained to see out the match in comfortable fashion. Fullback David Mackey was prominent in taking advantage of the space in front of him, and he played a role in the crucial second goal, finding Alex Smirnoff, who cut inside to set up fellow substitute Harry Crowe for a simple finish.
The men in maroon threatened to run riot, with Mackey laying Barrett in, but although the arch poacher did brilliantly to evade the last defender, his lob dropped just over the bar, before Mackay himself was denied by Collier's fine reaction save, and the tireless Chris Monk crashed a header against the bar. Barrett had the final say, converting a penalty he won himself to round out the scoring
Seaford: Robbie Moran,, David Mackey, Gavin Walsh (Steve Kane, 67), Cian McGuinness, Stephen Kelly , Chris Monk, Francis Mulhall (Keith Newman, 83), Matteo La Placa (Mikey Kane, 70), Conan Murphy (Alex Smirnoff, 76), Collie Barrett, Peter Tierney (Harry Crowe, 72)
Stella East Wall: James Collier, Dillon Kelly, Robert Kelly, Keith Bryan, Josh O'Reilly (Darren Ward, 79), Jordan Bates (Karl Murphy, 66), Anthony McDonnell (Ryan Savage, 66), Richard Nugent, Kian Doran, Darren Molloy, Daryl Conroy
Rockfield Park, 17 August 2019