Immaculata II 2 - 2 New Santos
17/03/07 - Mallusk

New Santos Scorers - Joe Franklin x2
Star Player - Joe Magee

GK: JP Byrne
DL: Brian Canavan
DR: Niall Cluskey
DC: Joe Magee
DC: Hugh Dougal
ML: Martin Magee (Dominic Hanvey)
MR: David Dougan
MC: Gareth McKinstrey (Ronan Docherty)
MC: Johnny Magill
SC: Anthony McGreevy
SC: Joe Franklin

In a typical windy day up at Mallusk, New Santos had to with hold some early pressure from a young yet physical Immaculata side.  Despite their pressure, the home side failed to create many openings and were punished when Joe Franklin finished off a nice team move to put Santos ahead around the 25 minute mark.  The wind played a major part in the second goal when a mis-hit headed clearance got caught up in the wind and fell to Franklin again who was left with an easy finish to make it 2-0 to New Santos. Santos then missed a guilt-edged chance to make it 3-0, as fit-again captain Martin Magee blasted wide from 18 yards on his return from injury. Santos seemed to be cruising until just before half-time when they were gifted a goal out of nothing as Brian Canavan converted an innocent looking cross into his own net as Immaculata were given a life-line.

After the break,  Immaculata came out fighting and dominated precedings throughout the second half, and were denied only by some fine saves by JP Byrne in the Santos goal.  The equaliser came with around 15 minutes left when freshly introduced Dominic Hanvey tripped an Immaculata player in the box and the penalty was duely converted.  In search of a  winner, Santos manager Ronan Docherty introduced himself into the match as a striker as Santos went 4-3-3 and it nearly worked as Anthony McGreevy missed from all of 5 yards then Santos were denied a clear cut penalty as former player Matt Rooney claimed he did not see a blatant handball in the penalty area.  The last few minutes were fiery as a mini-scrap broke out involving David Dougan and a couple of Immaculatas players, although it was just another case of handbags at dawn.  Immaculata had a chance to win it in the last 30 seconds of injury time, but solid defender Joe Magee managed to win a couple of vital challenges just before the whistle was blown. 

It was a match Santos felt they could have won, but perhaps a draw was a fair result in hindsight.