Eastern Gaels suffered defeat on the road on Tuesday when losing to a very good home side at sunny Syddan.  Our preparations were disrupted with the loss of first choice goalkeeper Daniel Hatch on the day of the game and injuries to two stand-in goalies resulted in three different players playing in goal during the game!  When your luck is out ….

We started well in this Division 10 fixture and a good interception by Fionn McLoughlin led to a surging run from Mark Berney but his point effort dropped just short.  It was Syddan who opened the scoring on five minutes with a point from play. A couple of minutes later good approach work by Aaron Browning and Prince Khumalo created a goal chance for Tomas Quinn but his effort and second attempt on the rebound were blocked by an alert Syddan defence.  

From the next attack Syddan make no mistake with a half chance to goal and quickly added two points to lead 1-03 to no score.  After just twelve minutes an injury to our ‘first’ goalie Stefan Bors meant he had to be replaced by Keith Martin.  

Some good interplay between Ian Day and Aaron finished with our opening point by Simon Corrigan after a strong run.  We were getting plenty of ball now with Mark and Kevin Keane working hard around the middle.  A super block by Simon resulted in Prince getting a run on goal but he was fouled as he checked back inside and Simon pointed the free. 

Syddan were next to score with a free of their own before we registered a couple of costly wides.  With five minutes to go to the break Keith made a couple of excellent saves in quick succession but the home side had their second goal when their sweeper ghosted in behind the Gaels’ defence.

The following kick-out went awry and Syddan pounced for another point.  Approaching half time some good defending by Sean Collier averted a dangerous situation and Keith pulled off another good save shortly after.  

The home side had the last say of the half however with a point from play to leave it Syddan 2-06, Eastern Gaels 0-02 at half time. 

We got off to a good start to the second half with Aaron pointing a free to cut the deficit but this was quickly cancelled out by a Syddan point from their right half back. Five minutes in Isaac Barbara scored a fine point, his first for the club, after good work by Mark.

A free from the right by Aaron made it two in a row and we were enjoying our best spell of the game. But another goalkeeping crisis followed with Keith unable to continue and Ross Molloy taking his place between the sticks – our third goalkeeper of the game! 

He was soon called into action too and made a fine point blank save to deny a goal.  Syddan added a point soon after before Aaron’s great run was finished with an excellent point.  

Ross was called into action a couple of times in the space of a couple of minutes making two fine saves with a point for the home side sandwiched in between.  This left the score at 2-09 to 0-06 at the midway point of the half.

The next five minutes were very costly for us as two mistakes led to turnovers which were punished emphatically with Syddan goals.  The home side then introduced some fresh legs and reeled off the last four points in the closing stages to close the game out at Syddan 4-13, Eastern Gaels 0-06.

Eastern Gaels: Stefan Bors, Fionn McLoughlin, Kevin O’Rourke, Colin Harte, Isaac Barbara (0-01), Sean Collier, Craig Magill, Mark Berney, Kevin Keane, Morgan Reid, Aaron Browning (0-03, 2f), Ian Day, Simon Corrigan (0-2, 1f), Prince Khumalo, Tomas Quinn.

Subs: Keith Martin, Ross Molloy, Oran Long, Robbie Duggan.