Amin sees red as Old Carey fall to unlucky away loss.

After much had been made of Old Careys limp performance against Lyndale, Old Carey were challenged to respond accordingly against top of the table Ashburton. The challenge against the promotion favouritea was compounded by the news that the in-form Anthony Skalkos would miss through injury. In his place came Hugh Matthews, making his first seniors start in 4 years.

In what can only be described as unfavourable first half conditions, Old Carey were forced to confront a somewhat downward sloping ground. When coupled with near galeforce winds, Old Carey certainly had their work cut out for them.

Given the conditions, Old Carey made a conscious decision to get numbers behind the ball. They retained their shape and structure for prolonged periods, as they continually styfled Asburtons forward attacks.

On 22 minutes, Ashbirton almost grabbed the lead when a well waited ball found McInness, who expertly shielded the ball away from goalkeeper Paton, only for the Ashburton striker to see his shot clip the cross-bar and go out of play. The pressure applied by Roediger on McInness when he tool his shot certainly played a part in the miss.

Through their desperation, and endeavour, Old Carey often gave away free kicks, which while assisting to break up Ashburtons play, left them having to deal with balls continually coming into their box. On 32 minutes, Hugh Matthews dragged down his direct opponent in a somewhat cynical, yet clever challenge, as the Ashburton striker threatened to get into a dangerous position. Matthews earned a yellow card for his efforts. Ashburtong directly shot from the resulting free-kick, however Paton showed clean hands with Ashburton players waiting to tuck away and rebound.

As the half drew to a close, Richard Stanner made a brilliantly timed challenge in his own box to deny Ashburton a scoring chance, after the Ashburton winger had managed to escape his marker.

Old Carey were certainly the happier of the two sides at half time, having quite literally weathered the storm.

Nick Mallios then entered as a half time substitue for Matthews, who was unable to continue due to a hip complaint.

In the second half, Old Carey were encouraged to push on, which they did to almost immediate effect. On 49 minutes, Stanner was played through by Amin. The winger found himself one-on-one but could only direct his shot wide when he was perhaps expected the score.

Then, on 52 minutes, disaster struck. Amin, who was having a very good game in the middle of the park, lost control of the ball and slid to regain possession. His tackle initially took the ball, however he was unfortunate to see his foot slide over the ball, making contact with the Ashburton player. The player stayed down and the Ashburton players surrounded the referee. Much to most peoples surprise, Amin was dismissed.

Again, Old Carey had it all to do and employed more men behind the ball.  Mallios and captain MacDonald expertly contained the Asburton midfielders in what was now a two person central midfield for Old Carey.

Ashburton then almost broke the deadlock, however Paton pulled off a brilliant one-handed save to a snap shot which was heading for the top corner after a ball was played in low from out wide on the left.

Ashburton were getting frustrated as they tried to stretch the Old Carey midfield. Sehon Pellew and Luke Udorovix both stemmed many attacks as Ashburton focused their attacks down their left. Corner after corner for Ashburton failed to provide any results.

Then Old Carey almost caught Ashburton on a counter attack. Andrew Mariadason was played through by Mallios, however the strikers early shot was easily saved by the Ashburton keeper.

The game looked destined for a draw. However in the 84′ minute Ashburton finally unlocked the Old Carey defence, albeit with a bit of luck. Ashburton captain Clint Boyle carried the ball up from the back unchallenged. Marc Arkesteijn was forced to close him down, however an attempted one-two took an unfortunate touch off Mallios and fell back into the path of Boyle. His shot from 15 yards was partially blocked by Pellew, with the ball deflected past Paton and into the bottom corner.

It was a cruel blow, and one that Old Carey really didn’t deserve. After defending so astutely for almost 85 minutes, Old Carey were forced to throw bodies forward in an attempt to grab an equalizer.

They almost did to when, in what was the last meaningful piece of play before the final whistle, Stanner whipped in a devlish free-kick to the back post which Mallios met with a header, but he was unable to direct it on target from 10 yards.

A cruel result in what was a much improved performance.