Lacken United 3-2 Crossmolina

Crossmolina sank to their third successive defeat of the season at Lacken on Sunday. They had conceded three goals in both of their previous games and Lacken took advantage of their generosity to poach three more. Lacken started well and were rewarded with a fortuitous goal in the 23rd minute when a free kick from inside their own half somehow managed to find the back of the Crossmolina net. The visitors equalised within two minutes, though, when Steven Canavan slotted in Derek Greham’s cross after some good work by Joe Keane in midfield. Crossmolina’s minds were still on the half time team talk as the second half began and Lacken punished them by scoring within a minute of the restart. Vincent Clarke raced through midfield and passed to Brian Forde who finished well to make the score 2-1. The game was effectively over when Lacken stretched their lead on the hour mark with another bizarre goal. This time they scored directly from a corner kick as the set piece practice began to pay dividends in a big way for them. Referee Aidan Nevin then dismissed a Lacken player for foul and abusive language with 15 minutes left and Crossmolina took advantage by scoring within three minutes. Joe Keane floated a free kick into the box and Adrian Conway nodded the ball to John Hegarty who headed it in to give Crossmolina a glimmer of hope. They mounted a late rally which saw a corner cleared off the line and a Conway header well saved but it was too little, too late. Crossmolina will once again have to find solace in defeat and the return of Mark Loftus, Adrian Conway, Padraig Whittaker and Joe Keane can only help during the months ahead and with sixteen games remaining there is ample time for the team to gel and rampage up the table.