5 June 2015
Claire and I think our experiences in the Second Round of the Irish Senior Challenge Cup were interesting enough to merit a post of their own. Hopefully you'll agree with us after you read the story.
We were drawn away to Cobh Ramblers who, you might remember, played us to a 0-0 draw by putting the entire population of County Cork inside their penalty area. We're in contention for a spot in Europe, so I wasn't going to send out the first team for the Cup tie. As badly as the reserves played against Dundalk last month in the League Cup, I didn't want my first eleven tiring themselves out on Tuesday before a Premier Division fixture on Friday.
That left back is
Jim Moore, a 17-year-old up from the youth team for his senior debut. The other lads are probably at least somewhat familiar.
Aaron O'Connor is the only regular player among them. In contrast, Ramblers fielded nearly a full-strength side.
We nearly took the lead in the second minute of play.
Thomas Kelly broke free and hammered a shot off the
left post, past the outstretched hand of their diving goalkeeper.
The ball bounced directly back to Thomas, who had a wide-open net to shoot at.
He hit the
right post this time.
Dave Ward put Ramblers ahead on 16' with a sublime finish from 20 yards out. We drew level through
Martin McCabe a few minutes from the half.
Just past the hour mark, the match took an ominous turn.
Paul O'Keefe went into Ward with his studs up, and drew a well-deserved red card. It took eleven minutes, but Ramblers made us pay for Paul's recklessness and took the lead.
At this point, I turned to Claire, who was sitting beside me on the sofa. Claire saw no difference in losing a Cup tie by a 2-1, 3-1, or 13-1 score. "Go for it," she advised. I interpreted this as "Use Control mentality, like usual."
In the 81st minute, we won a free kick 25 yards from goal.
Aaron O'Connor stood over it...and fired a howitzer into the top right corner to make the score 2-2, and force a replay at Eamonn Deacy Park on Tuesday night!
We didn't have another match for a week, so I sent the first eleven out to take care of business.
Declan Nolan wasn't available due to a twisted ankle, but everyone else was ready to go. And, as you'll see, Declan's understudy took a star turn tonight.
I'll let a picture tell the story.
That screen shot doesn't do
Pasquale Van Daele's performance justice.
PVD, as he is now known, was credited with an assist on one of
Gary Joyce's three goals. This is not unusual for the Belgian wide man, who is the Premier Division's leading provider, with seven.
After the game, I put in an offer to buy PVD from his Belgian club. I moved some funds from my (overly?) generous wage budget to fund a €52,000 transfer fee and, as of 1 July, Pasquale will be all ours.