“It’ll be hard to pick ourselves up from that”: ABBEY ROAD VETERANS TAKE LATE VICTORY IN THRILLER AT HERON ECCLES

Joe Matthews Reporting:

---

Last season’s league and cup winners, Abbey Road Veterans, have made it three wins in three against the Mersey Harps 1s this season, thanks to a dramatic injury-time winner from Mikey Brown, and an inspired hattrick from Leighton McGivern.

The away side took control right from the off, dominating possession and making it count after just eight minutes; McGivern improving his goal tally to 13 goals in six games after being played through by club captain Tony Rendell.

Despite their early pressure, the Harps got one back after a miscommunication at the back allowed Abdul Abdul to prod past Karl Jennings in the Vets goal.

McGivern clearly had an issue with the score being equal, and took things into his own hands, as he brought down a looping ball over the top, cut inside, seemingly on his right, doing a quick step over, before using the outside of his left to find the far-right corner, catching Leannan McCann off guard with his early shot.

Once again, however, the Harps were not done, and Ali Jalo scored the goal of the game, rocketing a shot into the top left corner, shaking the upright from just outside the box. There was nothing Jennings could do to stop the ball from heading right into the stanchions. Just 10 minutes from half-time and Mersey Harps took the lead for the first time, as Sean McBride lifted a shot over the goalkeeper into the net.

The Vets surely felt unlucky going into the second period, having arguably been the better side in the first half, but they came back out swinging. Completing his hattrick just after the hour mark, McGivern brought down a bouncing ball over the top, and fired a low hard shot into the bottom-right to make the game level yet again.

The game then settled down for the last half an hour, as the attention turned to the Harps, who needed the win if they wanted to have any chance of winning the league. The Abbey Road Veterans played on this and started gradually taking more chances going forward.

The winner came in the 90+1st minute after some scuffed shots left the ball to Matty Sohl to slot away and claim all three points in a drama-filled, high-octane, seven-goal thriller.

The Vets manager said: “Did we deserve it? Possibly but they could probably argue the same thing that they had chances as well.

“What a way to win it- it's always the best a late winner. There were some great goals in the game, and interesting incidents that could have swung it our way.”

Mersey Harps manager Eamon said: “We started the game quite slow, and I think we conceded four really soft goals. Even when we were 3-2 ahead, I don’t think we were quite comfortable.

“You saw yourself we could’ve won it ourselves 4-3 but we end up losing 4-3 which is a big shame considering it's a big title game for us. It’ll be hard for us to pick ourselves up from that, but we go on again for a big game next week”

Next week the Harps take on Old Xaverians A team, whilst the Abbey Road Veterans take on the Collegiate Old Boys.

Check out the highlights via our YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgPxgw2Y43ljf-ICn4uG2kA