Drumaness Mills beats Dunmurry YM in a tight game
The NAFL,
Clarence Cup Round 2,
Meadowvale – Saturday 28th January,
Drumaness Mills 3 2 Dunmurry YM.
This was a Clarence Cup match that failed to live up to expectations on a cool afternoon at Meadowvale as both teams locked horns hoping to get into the next round writes Cyril McKinney.
Overall this was a dogged game where both sides enjoyed periods of dominance without really creating a lot of quality football and clear cut chances were few and far between.
Right from the kick-off, Mills had a chance in the first minute with Rooney sent through on the right flank, and as he cut in on goal his shot was well saved by McBride in the Dunmurry goals.
Despite the Drumaness early dominance, it was the visitors who took the lead on 11 minutes when Smyth beat the offside trap on halfway and once through on goal he made no mistake and fired past the advancing McCann into the Mills nets.
Drumaness bounced back straight away with Calum Dougan testing the visiting keeper with a shot on 13 minutes, but the keeper was equal to it.
On 22 minutes a quality ball into the Dunmurry box from Sharvin on the left wing was met by the in-rushing Rooney at the back post but his first time shot was blocked by the keeper at full stretch.
Drumaness continued pressing forward and on 33 minutes Sharvin was brought down inside the box as he cut in from the right and the referee declared a penalty.
Up stepped Dougan who made no mistake from the spot sending the keeper the wrong way to level the match up at 1-1.
On 37 minutes the visitors keeper was called into action again tipping a goal bound shot from Lundy over the bar .
As half-time approached Drumaness went in front through Kearney who was in the right place at the right time to fire to the net to give the home side the lead at the interval.
Dunmurry started the second half on the front foot and had Drumaness pinned back in their own half for long periods.
But despite some last ditch defending, it seemed inevitable that a goal was coming and on 63 minutes they deservedly got back on level terms.
From a corner Dunmurry midfielder Larmour was on hand to finish to the net when the home keeper McCann failed to collect the corner ball.
At this point either side could have went on to win the match but it was the home side that took the lead again fairly much against the run of play.
Kearney beat his man on the left wing and fizzed a great ball low across the six yard box which evaded everyone and the alert Rooney at the back post nailed the ball into the net on 76 minutes to put Drumaness back in front.
This seemed to spur on the visitors who continued to press, but were frustrated by some resolute defending and lack of quality with the final ball or clear cut chances.
Dunmurry left winger Burns had a shot from distance on 81 minutes and right winger Elliot missed the target on 86 minutes.
Try as they did, Dunmurry could not engineer an equaliser and Drumaness saw the game out to progress to the third round.
Drumaness Mills: C McCann, O Wright, E Lundy, T McConville, B Campbell, J Healy, E Rooney, K McCleary, C Dougan, J Sharvin, A Kearney. Subs: D Bell for O Wright, J Murray for A Kearney, S McQuoid for E Rooney,
Dunmurry YM: R McBride, M King, M Devlin, K Irwin, S Larmour, R Harron, D Elliot, J Kidd, C McComb, D Smyth, D Burns. Subs: J Flanagan for , T Kerr for K Irwin, L Guy for R Harron.
