Coundon Park on a Tuesday evening in May but feeling like a wet and windy November evening was the setting for the final game of the 2014/15 season against a Holy Family team preparing for the cup final 4 days away.
Affinity playing with a very strong wind at their backs started the game well pressing Holy Family and keeping them on the back foot in their own half.Keeping any sustained possession was difficult given the wind and torrential rain but both sides were trying to get forward at every opportunity.Gilly was being kept particularly busy with darting runs from the Holy Family strikers and Steve R had to be on his toes on a couple of occasions diving bravely at strikers' feet.
Affinity took the lead on 15 minutes with a powerful free kick by James dropping the ball just before the Holy Family keeper leaving him unable to prevent it hitting the back of the net.Affinity pushed on from this point and James came close with a second free kick with the keeper just managing to hold onto a curling effort.Ken Foster decided to take the teams off for some protection against a hail storm that made facing the hail painful.
Will replaced Mark with Chris moving to left midfield and he and Sean kept the Holy Family right side honest as did James with Holy Family's left side.Holy Family finished the 1st half the stronger of the two sides with their left winger becoming more significant with his fine control and speed.
The final half of the season started with both sides trying to push forward with Holy Family building pressure by keeping good possession.Affinity as they had for the last few games tired as the 2nd half progressed and with tired legs a few mistakes crept in.
Holy Family levelled the game with a fine shot across the penalty area from the left into the right hand corner of the net leaving Steve R no chance.It wasn't all Holy Family though with Chris causing problems down the left going past a number of players and delivering a good cross but Affinity had no one far enough forward to get on the end of it.
Holy Family made the most of a misjudged bouncing ball with a striker pouncing to beat an advancing Steve R to take the lead.The final 5 minutes of the game kind of summed the season up with Affinity switching off at two poorly defended corners allowing Holy Family to double their score making the result as in the ARYPT game somewhat flattering for the visitors.
Man of the match goes to Gilly with a fine defensive performance and a number of forages into the Holy Family half. Also special mention to Chris and James for their attacking attitude the whole game
