A player more since the 13th minute wasn’t enough for Renova to make a good results against the semi-professional team from Northern Ireland, winning with a late goal for 2:1.

Game opened good for Renova as captain Fisnik Nuhi had an amazing run from center midfield passing several defenders before being taken down into the box. The penalty was a dubious decision for Glentoran as it seemed like it was outside the box, but Polish referee Dawid Piasecki made the right call. To make things even worse for the visiting team, Jamie McGovern was sent off for the foul. Boban Jancevski did not made a mistake and opened the scoreline. Although things looked good for Renova, Glentoran were not at all bad team. They were easily filling the hole that opened becuse of the red card and it seemed like Renova were not able to break down their defense. Glentoran was even threatening to equalize with their fast counter-attacks. That thing happened right before the whistle for half-time when captain Colin Nixon was the first to react inside the box and scored with a header.

In the second half, BylbylSokoli made two subs to try and take advantage of the fact Glentoran was down to 10 men. Not a lot real chances happened and Glentoran did played their football. They used fast wingers and constantly were proving as a threat to Renova’s rather slow defense. The advantage on the field for Renova was not too visible, as the away team marked the key players quite good. Nuhi was a constant threat with his fast runs but the 1-2 passes that Renova played too many times with the target men upfront were not giving result.

When everyone thought the match will end even, the weirdest situation happened. Renova were attacking all guns blazing and a ball in the box made real problems for Glentoran. It seemed like one of the defensive players played with hand and the players suddenly stopped, but Nuhi did not. As the referee didn’t whistled Nuhi easily took the ball and passed it to unmarked Muharem Bajrami who had no problems scoring while Glentoran players were acting like spectators.

That goal touched a nerve at visiting players and players started arguing with the referees. Especially nervous was keeper Elliott Morris who shouted at the first assistant for allegedly risen flag. As he previously had a yellow card for time keeping, the referee gave him second yellow. Just several minutes earlier, Glentoran’s coach Scott Young used his substitutions so a player had to wear goalie’s shirt and stand between the posts. Although Renova tried scoring a third, the final score remained 2:1.

Referee’s work on today’s match might be questioned as he simply gave too many yellow cards, but tackles were flying in and additionally some of the cards were given for objections and simulation for penalty, when Glentoran player made a fast run into the box on the start of the second half, fell down and asked for penalty but was shown yellow card instead.

Both teams can be happy with the result, although Renova played with a player more for 80 minutes. They did not made too many real chances and winning with a late goal was the best they could make out of this match. Glentoran played good football although with a man down for most of the match and turned out not to be pushover at all. When they finished the match with 9 men, it is good they did not lost with bigger margin.

National Arena Philip II of Macedon in Skopje, Macedonia
Referee: Dawid Piasecki (Poland)
Scorers: Jancevski 14′ pen., Bajrami 87′ – Nixon 45’+3′
Red cards: McGovern 13′, Morris 89′
Yellow cards: Emini, Gashi, Statovci, Waterworth, Taylor, Clarke, Nixon, Morris.
Renova: Elezi; Trajkovski (80′ Fetai), K. Stepanovski (46′ Simovski), M. Stepanovski, Ristov; Bajrami, Nuhi (c), Emini, Statovci, Gashi; Jancevski (46′ Ismaili). Manager: Bylbyl Sokoli.
Glentoran: Morris; Nixon (c), Taylor, Ward; Cherry (80′ McGuigan), McGovern, Hill, Clarke, Waterworth (86′ Gibson); Boyce, O’Hanlon (56′ Murray). Manager: Scott Young.