Ten-man Deal fail to hold on
Published: 00:00, 03 January 2009
Greenwich 2 Deal 1
Two goals in the last 14 minutes condemned Deal to a 2-1 Bulmers Cider Kent League defeat on Saturday.
“It was a bit of a tale of woe,” said boss Derek Hares. “We lost Leon Ingram before the game because he hadn’t finished his postman’s round, then Stuart Vahid chipped a bone in his ankle after 15 minutes, and two minutes later Grant Bagley was sent-off for handball in the area so we had to play with 10 men for nearly 70 minutes.
“Add the fact that the pitch and changing rooms were awful, it was freezing cold and that there were only 20-odd people watching and it was a depressing experience."
The early departures of Vahid and Bagley meant Hares had to switch to 4-4-1, with substitute Mark Pollard playing up front but – with Paul Rogers saving the Greenwich penalty awarded against Bagley – Deal would have gone in 1-0 up at half-time but for Danny Smith hitting the bar.
Six minutes into the second half Aaron Robinson was brought down in the area and Dave Bathgate tucked away the spot kick to give Hares’ 10 men something to hang on to,
but with 76 minutes gone a shot from McCarry struck Shane Suter and looped into the net.
Four minutes later Banton raced down the wing before producing a fine finish for the winner.
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KentOnline reporter