Published: Friday, 15th January, 2010 12:23pm

Curley nets winner as Greens slay Dragons

by Kevin O'Neill

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Hodson Bay Greens 1 Temple Villa Dragons 0

A single goal from James Curley put Hodson Bay Greens on the road to success in their opening Group D match in this year's ADSL Futsal Stacey Cup last Friday evening.

Curley struck after five minutes to give Hodson Bay an ideal start to the competition and, later in the evening, they went on to achieve four further victories in the group stage to reach this Thursday's quarter-finals.

Hodson Bay were deserved winners of this contest and probably would have won by a far greater margin had Temple Villa Dragons' 'keeper Ciaran Lynam not been in such fine form.

Hodson Bay's beginning to the game was energetic and they never really let up. With the first attack of the contest, Brian Derwin found himself in space but Ciaran Lynam produced the first of several good saves to keep out his effort. Sean Doyle then had a glimpse of goal for the Bay but was always under pressure from opposing defenders and his left-footed strike drifted wide of Lynam's goal.

Seconds later, Derwin again found himself with a view of goal but this time his low shot from a difficult angle crashed into the side netting.

Curley was again involved when his neatly clipped sideline ball picked out Derwin but he missed his attempted volley.

Then Lynam had to be on red-alert to deny Derwin again. This time, Derwin fired in a low and powerful shot from the sideline that Lynam turned away brilliantly with his legs.

Temple Villa earned some respite around the third and fourth minutes and had their first half-chance when Sean Clinton slotted in Hugh Owens but his miscontrol allowed the Hodson Bay defence recover and clear to safety.

Up the other end, Conor McCormack made a great clearance for Temple Villa, showing bravery and good anticipation to deny a shooting chance for Kyle Tobin.

The breakthrough eventually arrived in the fifth minute and it was a most brilliantly taken goal from Curley.

With seemingly little space to operate, Curley looped the ball over his marker and then raced onto the loose ball to finish perfectly past Lynam.

Sean Doyle then sent a rasping left-footed shot towards the Temple Villa goal which was excellently stopped by Lynam, who again used his legs to great effect.

Moments later, Doyle again found himself in a good position but his cross-goal shot went narrowly wide.

Hodson Bay briefly threatened to equalise as the game neared its end.

Hugh Owens picked out Joe Kincaid but his powerful effort was half-blocked by a Hodson Bay defender before squirming into the grateful arms of Seamus Smyth.

Brian Derwin then blocked down an attempted clearance by a Temple Villa defender and found himself through on goal, but his well-drilled left-footed effort flew inches wide.

Edmond Nolan then tried his luck from distance but found a wall of Temple Villa defenders in the way. With that, the final whistle was blown and Hodson Bay Greens were on their way to qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Hodson Bay Greens: Seamus Smyth; Niall Murray, Adam Dempsey, Brian Derwin, James Curley, Kyle Tobin, Sean Doyle, Edmond Nolan.

Temple Villa Dragons: Ciaran Lynam; Sean Scanlon, Oisin Ryan, Joe Kincaid, Hugh Owens, Sean Clinton, Jack Keane, Conor McCormack.