Round 1

Recap

It was a rough start to the reign of one coach, but relief for another as a ten-man Hamilton fought hard but weredowned by a Charlestown side assisted by two former Olympic men.

A debut goal for Hamilton’s Jed Honery got the ball rolling, after he was set off by Rhys Cooper and finished low past Danny Ireland, playing his first match between the Charlestown sticks.

The light Blues struck back just past the half-hour mark after a strong sliding tackle from Rene Ferguson forced a turnover on the halfway line. The ball fell nicely to Kane Goodchild, who put through fellow former Olympic man Scott Smith. Smith finished low and hard to level the scores at 1-all.

Five minutes before half-time, and Charlestown were ahead with Rene Ferguson again in the thick of the action. The left winger curled a beautiful shot in from the right-hand side in the afters of a corner, which nestled in the inside of the side netting to make the score 2-1.

Five minutes after half-time, Charlestown doubled their lead thanks to yet another link-up between Goodchild and Smith. The former teed up the latter after being played through by Matt Tull, and Smith had a second.

Disaster struck for Olympic in the 57^th minute, when Jake McGuinness earned himself a second yellow and subsequent red card for a pull of Tom Smart’s shirt.

Hamilton were back in with a shout in the 68^th minute after a Reece Papas free kick from the right-hand side eventually found it’s way in courtesy of Rhys Cooper at the back post. It wasn’t to be a miracle point for Olympic, though – the ten-man side went down 3-2.