Shamrock Rovers Away

The first half started and was very cagey, both sides had an equal amount of chances, but it was Amberswoods Dean Tomlinson who had the best opportunity as the ball found its way through to him, via a Shamrock Rovers defender, six yards out with an advancing goalkeeper, he put the ball outside the right hand post.

As it was all square at nil nil at half time, Amberswood thought they could build on this, especially with the results they had been having the last couple of games, but within the first ten minutes all those hopes were dashed as Amberswood were three goals down. The first goal came after a long ball was played and a mix up between fullback Carl Stocks and goalkeeper William Hoey and then Carl Stocks decided to deal with the situation by taking the player on, inside his own six yard box and got dispossessed and the attacker rounded the keeper and thought he had scored into an empty net, but was thwarted by Amberswood defender Darren Ainscough who cleared off the line only for the ball to bounce up back to the striker for him to convert second time round. The second goal came as a result of a dodgy referees decision as the Shamrock Rovers winger played the ball into the centre forwards feet who delayed before playing the ball back to the winger who was in an offside position, but was allowed to go on and score the second. the third was an unstoppable thunderbolt from twenty five yards out into the top left corner of the net.

Amberswood manager Phil Atherton tried a tactical change in formation to 4-3-3, but that was to no avail, but with ten minutes to go, Amberswood player were all at sea, as there were more players ahead of the half way line than behind it, which contributed to two more goals for the home side.

Amberswood finally did make a breakthrough when they were awarded an indirect free kick after the goalkeeper picked up a deliberate backpass. The ball was passed to Barry Jones who slammed the ball into the roof of the net for a consolation goal.

Final Score: Shamrock Rovers 5 Amberswood 1

Man Of The Match: Barry Jones as he was the dominent force for Amberswood at the back and was also involved with most things going forward.