Painful defeat for Institute, who throw away half time lead against Dundela

Institute 2

Dundela 4

Institute paid for missing some incredible chances as they threw away a half-time lead to lose to Dundela at the Brandywell. 

Already 2-1 up thanks to goals from Michael Harris and Evan Tweed, 'Stute were completely on top, but Danny Lafferty and Mikhail Kennedy passed up superb chance to send the hosts into half time two goals in front. 

Dundela made amends after the break, with two goals from Andrew Hall helping them to a win which takes them seven points clear of 'Stute at a crucial stage of the season. 

Dundela started the better, but found themselves a goal down after eight minutes. Evan Tweed collected the ball in the middle of the park and saw the run of Michael Harris in behind, playing the perfect through ball behind the defence for his team mate to run onto. Harris attempted what Patton did, albeit with more success, side-stepping the goalkeeper and slotting the ball into the empty net for his eighth goal of the season.

Danny Lafferty then chose not to shoot at an empty net after doing all the hard work to sidestep the Dundela goalkeeper, opting instead to pass to Sean Carlin, who tried to get a yard away from backtracking defenders before seeing his effort pushed behind by Hunter. Kennedy then had the chance to add to his growing goal tally when he worked a shooting opportunity but he was well off target with just the goalkeeper to beat.

‘Stute should have been three goals clear at least, and they were punished for their misses when Dundela levelled on 26 minutes; a corner was cleared to the edge of the area where Ian Fletcher volleyed the ball through a crowd, the ball hitting Anthony Burns as it deflected past a helpless Muldoon.

‘Stute, to their credit, recovered well from that misfortune and restored their lead five minutes before the half time break when Evan Tweed curled an unstoppable shot beyond Hunter from 25 yards. It was a spectacular effort from the midfielder, but no less than ‘Stute deserved.

Still, the game should have been out of sight at the break but ‘Stute passed up another unbelievable opportunity, Liam Mullan putting Kennedy through on goal, and the striker had all the time he needed to pick his spot, but Hunter saved and Dundela, who should have been dead and buried, went in just one goal behind.

Half Time 2-1

Dundela were a different side completely in the opening stages of the second half, and with Mark Patton causing problems on the left they created three huge opportunities in the first five minutes. ‘Stute needed a miraculous goal-line clearance from Shane Boyle to maintain their lead from Burns’ close-range effort, before Muldoon then had to save from Charlie Dornan. But the equaliser wasn’t long in coming, with Burns crossing low for Andrew Hall to bundle home from close range to make it 2-2.

Dundela took the lead for the first time just past the hour mark, a poor clearance from Dylan King latched onto by Fletcher, whose ball found Hall, who smashed home an unstoppable effort past Muldoon for his second goal of the game.

Dundela then made sure of the points on 75 minutes when Faulkner’s simple pass forward found Ewan Kelly in between the two ‘Stute centre-halves, and he made no mistake, firing the ball past Muldoon to make it 4-2.

Teams

Institute: Gareth Muldoon, Danny Lafferty, Shaun Leppard, Evan Tweed (Cormac Burke 87’), Liam Mullan (BJ Banda 66’), Dylan King (Caoimhin Porter 66’), Tiarnan McKinney (Orrin McLaughlin 87’), Sean Carlin, Michael Harris, Mikhail Kennedy (Jamie Dunne 77’), Shane Boyle.

Dundela: 21 Lewis Hunter, 3 Ian Fletcher, 5 Sam Dinu, 6 Jamie McGovern, 8 Andrew Hall, 10 Anthony Burns (Lee Rea 76’), 12 Jake Corbett (William Faulkner 45’), 14 Charlie Dornan, 16 Jake White, 19 Mark Patton (Matthew Munn 90’), 20 Ewan Kelly (Ronan Kalla 76’).

Referee: Mark Dillon.