Marine 2, Eastwood Town 0

Jan 14 2008 by Steve Rimmer, Liverpool Daily Post

A GAME between teams who started the day lying third and fourth in the UniBond League Premier Division was always going to be a tense affair.

But few could have predicted how events would unfold at Marine’s Arriva Stadium.

Marine took the lead in the 24th minute when Eastwood’s Marc Smith mistakenly passed to Karl O’Donnell, who smashed the Mariners ahead.

Eastwood’s cause was not helped on 29 minutes when their assistant manager John Ramshaw was dismissed for pushing Kevin Towey.

If Eastwood had shot themselves in the foot in the first half, they put the final nail in their own coffin at the start of the second.

On 47 minutes the ball was played back to Eastwood’s goalkeeper Ian Deakin.

As Deakin tried to flick the ball over O’Donnell, the Marine striker nicked the ball off the keeper and toe-poked it into an empty net.

The game boiled over on 76 minutes when Peter Cumiskey was fouled and a mass brawl ensued.

Referee Darren Brown sent off Eastwood’s Gary Breach and Craig Swinscoe plus Marine’s Wayne McDermott.

A few minutes later Eastwood’s manager Paul Cox was also dismissed, this rime for foul and abusive language.

MARINE: Brown, Potter, Rice, Connolly, McDermott, Brookfield (Woolcott 87), Hussey, Parle, Brookfield, O’Donnell (Tuck 89), Towey (Cumiskey 74). Subs: Rice.