New Santos vs Turf Lodge
Santos took a break from their league schedule to face Premier Division side Turf Lodge who had beaten Santos 7-1 and 4-1 the previous season.
In the opening 15 minutes Turf Lodge looked the stronger of the two sides but neither side created much of note. On the half hour mark Gaz Cullen's shot was deflected behind for a corner. From the resulting corner David Harrigan's cross was met by Joe Magee who powered in a header to put Santos in the lead.
Turf Lodge rallied back with a succession of corners one of which resulted in a goal line clearance from Paul Barr to send Santos into the half-time break in the lead.
Half-time: New Santos 1-0 Turf Lodge
At the beginning of the second half Santos played some nice football pushing for a second goal but couldn't make their pressure count. This set up for a tense last half hour in which Turf Lodge pushed forward constantly in search of an equaliser. For all their possession Turf found it difficult to break down the Santos defence with Conor Chambers making several challenges to deny Turf's attacks. The one opportunity that Turf managed to muster was wasted dreadfully as their striker dinked the ball straight into JP Byrnes hands.
In the last 5 minutes Turf had every member of their team, goalkeeper included, up for a couple of free-kicks which were dealt comfortable by Santos. With the goalkeeper out of position twice, Brendan Morris missed an open net and had an effort cleared off the line, but they weren't to matter as Santos held on for an impressive victory of their Premier Division opponents.
Full-time: New Santos 1-0 Turf Lodge
New Santos Team:
GK: JP Byrne
RB: Conor Chambers
CB: Joe Magee
CB: David Dougan
LB: Kevin Carson
RM: David Harrigan
CM: Mark McCourt
CM: Paul Barr
LM: Gareth Cullen
ST: Paddy O'Reilly (Brendan Morris)
ST: Anthony McGreevy
Santos Goals : Joe Magee (David Harrigan assist)
MOTM: Conor Chambers
