Colony Park Juniors v Hermes

 
The match started with Hermes on the attack, and Gray saved low down to his left on 6 minutes. The home side continued to press with Colony unable to mount a serious attack, and it was no surprise when Hermes opened the scoring after 11 minutes.
 
The Colony defence was unable to deal with a cross from the right, and a Hermes forward was left unmarked to hit a good strike across Gray and into the net for the opener.
 
Hermes continued their attack, but passed up on several chances.
 
It took 20 minutes for the visitors to produce a meaningful attack, but it was well dealt with by the home keeper.
 
Colony were on the back foot for most of the half, and no one looked capable of forcing the play, and put any sustained pressure on Hermes.
 
Finally, Colony went on the attack, and a cross from the right saw a Barry Peden header cleared for a corner which came to nothing.
 
Colony were relieved to go in at the break only one goal down.
 
Half Time: - Hermes 1 – 0 Colony Park
 
The second half started in the same fashion as the first with Hermes on the front foot and the visitors unable to respond. Hermes forced several corners, and Colony had an escape when Cochrane cleared off the line.
 
The referee had struggled with offside decisions as he had no official assistants, and this was to cost Colony dearly’ when a ball was played through to the Hermes striker who looked well offside, but was allowed to go through and score Hermes second goal. Tough luck on the visitors, but not an easy game for the referee to handle on his own.
 
There were substitutes and a re-shuffle for the visitors. Steve Morrison and Kev Bonarius replaced Pete Douglas and Darren McGuiness. Ally Graham went to right back and Craig Brown to sweeper, and with Bonarius in midfield and Morrison at left back, Colony looked a better-balanced side. With 30 minutes to go, they started to take the game to Hermes.
 
The home side still looked dangerous on the break, and Gray was forced into a double save.
 
However, the visitors started to look dangerous, and Cooper had a shot from distance pushed over the bar.
 
From the resultant corner Morrison had a downward header cleared off the line, and when the ball broke to Bonarius, his shot hit the post and was cleared for a corner. Amazingly, the corner kick broke to Bonarius again, and once more, he hit the outside of the post with his effort.
 
The game flowed from end to end, and Bonarius had a looping header held well, under the bar, by the Hermes keeper. There were no further chances as Hermes deservedly won the match.
 

Full Time: - Hermes 2 – 0 Colony Park

 
 
Colony Park got what they deserved at Lochside, as they were rarely in the game for around an hour. However, had they played the way they did in the final 30mins, the game would have been a lot tighter, as there was nothing between the teams during this period, and in fact, the visitors might have taken something from the game. The attitude and fight shown in the closing period needs to last 90mins.