Saintfield United struggle against a determined Drumaness Mills
Irish Cup – Round One.
Venue: Meadowvale, 12th August 2023.
Drumaness Mills 6 1 Saintfield United.
Drumaness Mills welcomed Saintfield United to Meadowvale for this Irish Cup First Round tie and were made to work hard in a first half that saw the visitors start well in the first ten minutes writes Cyril McKinney.
Saintfield right winger Scott McCormick cut in from the left wing and unleashed a rasping shot that McCourty in the home nets had to be alert to tip it over the bar at the expense of a corner after just two minutes.
On 6 minutes Brown shot over from the edge of the box as Saintfield continued to press.
Gradually Drumaness started to get a foothold in the game and won the individual battles , and closed down the opposition quickly.
They counter attacked at pace especially on the left wing with Kearney, James McGivern and the overlapping Tom McNeill who began to cause problems for the Saintfield defence as the first half unfolded.
Drumaness’ Jack Sharvin was becoming influential with some clever passes and it was
his through ball that set up forward Ryan Kidd for the opening score on 28
minutes.
As Kidd drove into the box on the left he cleverly volleyed over the keeper with his left foot while off balance and into the far corner of the net.
Saintfield tried their best to get back on terms but lacked the quality ball in the final third and were restricted to long rage shots from Ryan Sofley on 29minutes and again on 31 minutes from Edilson Tavares both missing the target by some distance to leave it 1-0 to the home side at the break.
Whatever the Mills management said at half-time there was an immediate reaction from the players who started on the front foot.
Adam Kearney quickly tested the Saintfield keeper on 47 minutes with a powerfu shot as he cut inside onto his right foot from the left wing but the keeper made a fine
save at the expense of a corner.
Drumaness extended their lead on 53 minutes with a fine individual goal from Jack Sharvin who received the ball on the right edge of the box, turned his man and after beating
three men he sidefooted the ball past the advancing keeper.
Ryan Kidd got his second and the Drumaness third goal on 59 minutes with a
clinical finish after being set clear by McGivern.
A minute later Saintfield were exposed again with a ball over the top and
Sharvin was on the spot to finish in style once again to make it 4-0.
Saintfield by now were a beaten team and were undone again by another through ball which found Sharvin to complete his hattrick to make it 5-0 on 66 minutes.
A minute later Eoin Rooney got in on the act and finished off a great
approach play to make it 6-0.
Saintfield to their credit kept playing football and were finally rewarded on 78 minutes when McCormick drove into the box on the left and found the net from close in to leave
it 6-1 at full-time.
There were no complaints from Saintfield. Drumaness simply were the
better team and when they got their chances they were clinical and they
could easily had scored more but tended to be wasteful in front of goal.
Jack Sharvin was a class apart and he was well supported by Kearney,
McGivern and McNeill on the left and Gary Murdock led by example in defence.
Drumaness Mills: Conor McCourty , Joe Healy, Tom McNeill, Rory Deegan, Gary Murdock,
Eoin Rooney, Adam Kearney, James McGivern, Ryan Kidd, Jack Sharvin,
Oran Bolton. Subs: Noel Travers for Ryan Kidd
Saintfield FC: David Harper, Luke Martin , Paul Dickson , Aaron Milligan, Aaron
Kirkland, Justin Rea, Scott McCormick, Ryan Sofley, Edilson Tavares,
Adam Brown, Oliver Duff. Subs: Mark Gregg for Edilson Tavares, Alex McClenaghan for Luke Martin
