[caption id="attachment_67784" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Paddy McCarry felt his team was up against 12 men."]
Lansdowne Bhoys blanked New York Croatia 2-0 in Boonton, N.J., last Sunday to maintain a hold on the First Division [East] leadership.
Second half goals by Hayden Johns [60th] and Nico Zini [80th] earned the rejuvenated Bhoys a vital road win as what was a three-way tie atop the log before the weekend was reduced to a two-horse race for now between the Bronx Irish and Barnstonworth Rovers.
The latter edged Central Park Rangers 2-1 to stay level on points [14] with Lansdowne, albeit Kevin Grogan's lads have a superior goal difference.
New York Athletic Club, who between 1995 and 2001 bagged six Cosmopolitan Soccer League [CSL] titles under the tutelage of Dubliner Ronan Downs, dropped two points behind Lansdowne after a 1-1 tie with Mike Fitzgerald's Manhattan Kickers.
RESERVE FORCE
Jonathan McGeeney [25th], Seamus McDaid [60th] and Ritchie Morgan [70th] scored in the Lansdowne reserves' 3-1 romp, just their second win of the season.
METRO SHOOT-OUT
Lansdowne's third team, who went into their match with Dynamo SC joint first in Metro Div. Two [5-1-1, 16], came away from Kaiser Park with a point from a 4-4 tie.
Nelly Maguire, Anton Toner and Kevin Maginne [two] tallied in the wild shoot-out.
SHAMROCK LOSE
The Shamrock Over-30s left Bushwick Inlet fuming at the ref after their 10-man side slipped 3-2 to Manhattan Kickers. Paul Cowler nodded in the winner four minutes from time.
"The ref cost us the game between the sending off and the off-sides," charged manager Paddy McCarry, after the 8 pm fixture in which they had goal scorer Eugene "Bingo" O'Driscoll dismissed.
O'Driscoll [22nd] had equalized for the Rocks two minutes after Colin Brown's opener for Kickers.
"Blatantly off-side," McCarry decried the Kicker goal.
At any rate, Brown restored Kicker's lead [30th] and after Brian O'Connor [40th] had leveled the game would set up Cowler's winner against a Shamrock side reduced to ten men following O'Driscoll's dismissal [65th] for a second yellow.
McCarry called it harsh. "I'm very proud of my team, the way they played, but you're not going to beat a team with the ref on their side," he said.
He singled out stand-in goalie Joe Mulligan for his exploits and Paddy Geraghty who was exceptional in midfield.
Shamrock's record dropped to 3-3-1 [10] on the Over-30 Div. One [West] table.
BAD SKID
Make that seven losses in a row [0-7, 0] for the Shamrock firsts who crashed 2-0 to Tesoro Kings in their Second Division fixture on Roosevelt Island Saturday night.
Kareem Joachim and Andrew Revanales connected for the Caribbean side, whose reserves tied 2-2.
CELTIC SLIP
Elsewhere in Over-30 action, Rob Jonson slammed in a fourth minute goal but it wasn't enough for Manhattan Celtic who succumbed 2-1 to FC Partizani.
