Three goals, late in the opening half, helped in-form Union Mills record a stunning 5-0 victory over JCK Division Two rivals Marown at the Crosby Playing Fields on Saturday afternoon.
The result was, in fact, little more than the visitors deserved as they handled the tricky conditions in a much superior way to the home side. The Millers got off to a cracking start as Karl Dobbin rose to firmly head home the opener with just four minutes on the clock. The home defence appeared to stem the tide with smart play from Nigel Shimmin, Michael McHale and Neil Withers together with neat handling from Mark Blair.
The Crosby side, in fact, looked sharp on the break and it required a superb reflex save from Christian Cellamare to deny a sweet strike from Ryan Holdaway from levelling the score. As the half progressed both sides created chances with a Juan Killip effort being saved by Cellamare while at the other end Dobbin placed a header only just over the crossbar.
Eight minutes from the break the floodgates opened as a Lee Christian shot was deflected past Blair and minutes later it was three as AJ Suckling steered the ball home with the Marown defence at full-stretch.
Blair then produced the save of the game as he somehow pushed a well-struck Christian effort over the bar.
On the stroke of half-time it became 4-0 when Christian deflected a Suckling effort past the stranded Blair.
After the interval the visitors were forced to withstand early pressure as Shimmin joined the Marown attack. But with David Hicks, Dobbin and Chris Kelly all looking sound at the back, chances for the home side were few and far between. In fact, after Cellamare denied efforts from Killip and Holdaway, the impetus began to drift away from the home side once again.
To rub salt in the wounds, substitute Kenny Magee netted the goal of the game late on with a fine individual strike to ensure it was the Millers’ day.
Marown: Mark Blair, Alex McQuarrie, Michael McHale, Nigel Shimmin, Neil Withers (Phil Jones) Kevin Druggan (Stuart Dewhurst), Gary Thomas, Stuart Christian, Gary Christian, Ryan Holdaway, Juan Killip (Niall Quayle)
Union Mills: Christian Cellamare, James Cannell, Dan Woznica, Chris Kelly, David Hicks, Karl Dobbin, Michael Nash (James Lace), Gareth Logan (Kenny Magee) AJ Suckling, Matthew Cain, Lee Christian (Stephen Halsall)
Referee: Alan Cowin
Assistants: Huw Matthews and Willie Cowley
Man of the Match: Christian Cellamare - another impressive performance in the Mills goal, with several important saves
Match rating: HHHII Attendance: 104