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Match highlights by Graeme Bolton and Ryan Tweedie

Saturday 27th February 2010 - Ladbrokes.com Championship 1

Ballyclare Comrades team

Subs: 12.Stevie McDowell, 14.Steve Bainbridge, 15.Simon McGowan, 16.Sam McWilliams, 17.Matt Boyd

Larne: Brown, McLoughlin, Hill, Marsh, Carland, Dick, McQuoid, McNally, McLaughlin, Larmour, McMenamin. Subs - Rafferty, Moore, McConaghie, Fulton, Reid.

Comrades substitutions

Darren Munster (46')

Simon McGowan (46')

Andy Long (68')

Steve Bainbridge (68')

David Officer (81')

Stevie McDowell (81')

Goals

BJ McMenamin (14')

Allen Huxley o.g. (45+3')

Johnny Gowdy (70') pen

Comrades card

David Officer (26')

Darren Munster (45+2')

Andy Forsythe (83')

Lee Rushe (88')

Stevie McDowell (90')

Simon McGowan (90+2')

Comrades man of the match

Johnny Gowdy

Comrades fell to a disappointing home defeat to local rival Larne, in another game ruined by the actions of the officials.

Comrades reverted to their more familiar 4-4-2 formation, having played with one striker against Glentoran in the Irish Cup. With Ricky Moore having left the club, Johnny Gowdy came in to partner Mark McClelland in attack. Simon McGowan dropped to the bench, and with Stuart Galbraith suspended, Andy Simms started in midfield.

Pitch conditions were heavy, but all concerned were happy to have a game to play, which had not looked likely up to the night before, due to the recent poor weather.

The game started brightly enough and Comrades looked lively. In the 3rd minute a half chance was created when Scott Irvine drilled a cross in from the right and Mark McClelland connected to it with a first-time effort from 7 yards, but there wasn’t enough power in it to beat Brown in the Larne goal.

It was the visitors, looking lively themselves, who opened the scoring in the 14th minute. A diagonal ball across the pitch found McMenamin in loads of space on the left corner of the box and he had ample time to pick his spot, past the exposed Allen Huxley.

Comrades reacted well to this set-back and pressed forward for a quick equaliser. On 19 minutes they came close when Mark McClelland nodded the ball down for David Officer to fire a low shot goalwards from 14 yards, but he was denied by a fine save low at the base of the post by Brown.

The game was becoming increasing fractious with a number of heavy challenges and niggly fouls. On 32 minutes Larne were reduced to ten men when Hill received straight red card, perhaps rather harshly, for a clumsy challenge on Scott Irvine.

Comrades almost quickly took advantage two minutes later when a good move on the left side of the box saw Andy Long and Mark McClelland link up, with McClelland setting up Long for a shot from 16 yards, which produced a fine save from the impressive Brown.

Comrades, not surprisingly given their one man advantage, had most of the attacking play now and looked threatening. In the 36th minute Lee Rushe surged into space down the right and linked up with Scott Irvine, who crossed the ball into the box towards the head of Mark McClelland, whose resulting rather difficult effort, went over the bar from 8 yards.

In the 41st minute Comrades looked to be denied a blatant penalty when Scott Irvine was hacked down inside the box, having turned past a defender. Somehow, the referee and linesman, who were very well positioned, gave a free-kick outside the box; another in what was to be a string of woeful decisions.

Comrades continued to press. On 45 minutes Lee Rushe dinked a ball in from the right to Mark McClelland in the box, but he found his shot from a difficult angle blocked by the keeper.

The second half ended in controversy. Three minutes into injury-time Larne won a free kick on the right, 35 yards from goal. The ball was played into the box and looped up off the head of Darren Munster awkwardly for Allen Huxley, but the keeper caught it just under the bar whilst being challenged by a Larne player. Amazingly, the linesman, whose view was surely obstructed, signalled that the ball had crossed the line, even though it clearly had not, and to everyone surprise, a goal was given.

This was a massive body-blow to Comrades and was to prove the pivotal point of the game, once again manufactured by an erroneous decision by officials.

Comrades had to go for it in the second half and Gordon Chambers responded by taking off a defender, Darren Munster, and bringing on an extra midfielder in Simon McGowan.

However, it was one of the defenders still on the pitch who provided the first action of the second half, when two minutes in, Lee Rushe hit a screamer of a shot from 35 yards out, which flew like a rocket toward goal and forced Brown to tip it over the bar.

Two minutes Comrades had another good effort on goal. Mark McClelland held the ball up well at the edge of the box and laid it off for Andy Forsythe to strike a shot which the keeper did very well to turn low past the post.

Brown was in tremendous form in the Larne goal and on 59 minutes he again produced a fine save to deny Mark McClelland, after the Comrades striker had turned past his marker and shot from 14 yards.

As the half wore on Comrades began to look increasingly frustrated against a dogged Larne defence. Indeed Larne threatened once or twice on the break, with Comrades throwing everything forward. In the 69th minute a ball in from the right found McNally in a good position near the penalty spot, by Allen Huxley did well to block his effort.

A minute later, however, Comrades had a lifeline back into the game, when a surging Lee Rushe run into the right side of the box was stopped by a foul from Ryan McLoughlin. A penalty was awarded and Johnny Gowdy stepped up to coolly plant the ball past Brown.

Things looked really to be swinging Comrades’ way on 78 minutes when McLoughlin received a second yellow card, again perhaps harshly, for a foul just outside the right edge of the box. From the resulting free-kick played in by Andy Simms, the ball flicked of a defender’s head and fell to Mark McClelland at the back post, but he could not direct his effort on goal and the ball flashed wide of the post.

Nine-man Larne continued to doggedly resist the Comrades pressure and restricted chances to a minimum, as the game neared its conclusion. The closest Comrades came to an equaliser in the latter stages was when an Andy Forsythe shot from outside the box cannoned up of a defender and the ball looped up for Johnny Gowdy to volley and effort wide from 12 yards.

In the 90th minute Comrades miserable day was completed when substitute Stevie McDowell, on his debut after returning to the club, received a harsh straight red card for a foul inside the Larne half.

Comrades will be disappointed not only with some terrible refereeing decision, but also by failing to take advantage of a Larne side reduced in numbers for much of the game. Having said that, Larne’s keeper was in exceptional form and the game might have been very different if the well paid officials had made the right calls throughout the match.