Match Report -
Marine gamesmanship earns a draw
By Debbie Taylor

Getting a draw at the start of the game was a good result for Celtic, but after the gamesmanship displayed in stoppage time by Marine, a draw for Marine was a result.

Limited chances in the first half as neither team wanted to concede saw only one real chance for either side, though Tom Miller fired over the bar after his overlap with Ozzie Abadaki and former Celt, Charlie Doyle's distance effort into Greg Hall's hands. The chance came from a corner, as Freddie Price's header glanced off the bar with Hall beaten and lashed away by Miller.

The second half saw more chances. Jack Dunn's thirty-yard dipping shot had to be scrambled into Hall's hands by the post, whilst Raul Correia burst through the visiting defence onto Theo Bailey-Jones's through ball only to screw horribly wide. Marine still looked to set pieces for an opener, Doyle heading wide from one, but Hall on top form to deny Sol Solomon's effort out for a corner that required Hall to react at close range from Jonathan Spittle's header to push it over the bar. Godwin Abadaki denied Djavan Pedro's angled drive with a stuck-out leg and Pedro got onto the third corner to head over the bar.

Bailey-Jones twisted and turned to find some space, but his shot across the goal nipped just past the far post, as time began to run out. Thoughts turned towards getting a goalless draw against an inform team, until the third minute of four in stoppages when Sean Smith dragged Tinashe Chakwana off the ball as he ran along the touchline.

Penalty. Raul Correia placed the ball on the spot, only for Luke Clark to remove it, starting a kerfuffle to retrieve the ball in which both he and Domaine Rouse got a booking, whilst elsewhere around the box, Marine instigated a full-scale kerfuffle, surrounding officials and constantly taking the ball. It took five minutes to get the visitors under control and it had the desired effect with Correia shooting wide of the mark.

The only reason Marine had for their antics was to distract Correia, so the officials have to take some of the blame for it working. To finish what had been a close game, edged by the visitors until that point, leaves a sour taste.

1Passant, Bayleigh  
2Solomon-Davies, Josh  
3Smith, Sean  
4Lussey, Jordan   > 45
5Wardle, Joshua  
6Spittle, Jonathan   
7Price, Freddie   > 77
8Doyle, Charlie   
9Evans, Connor   > 62
10Dunn, Jack  
11Solomon, Sol  
12Clark, Luke Yellow Card < 77
13Pedro, Djavan  < 62
14Barrigan, JamesYellow Card < 45
15Weir, Lucas  
16Doyle, Alex