Drumaness Pull Rabbit Out Of Hat In Irish Cup Tie Round

Drumaness Mills win on penalties in Irish Cup tie round.

Drumaness Mills win on penalties in Irish Cup tie round.

Score: Drumaness 2 Fivemiletown 2 ( 4-2 on penalties after extra time).

Drumaness welcomed Fivemiletown Utd to Meadowvale for this Irish Cup Tie and right from the first whistle were on the attack in the opening minutes. But it was the visitors who had the first chance when Warrington slid in at the back post from a right wing cross failing to get the shot on target writes Cyril McKinney.

The Drumaness front two of Dougan and McQuoid linked up well on 6 minutes but McQuoid sent his shot sailing over the bar. Then the Drumaness keeper Kearney was called into action with a super save low down to his left on 14 minutes and from the resulting well worked corner Fivemiletown number 7 Robb sent his shot over the bar.

Mills Adam Kearney covers the ball from Fivemiletown’s Jamie Stewart.

On 19 minutes the home side were awarded a penalty following great work from Domican who setup McGivern who was up-ended as he set himself to shoot. Dougan saw his penalty saved by the keeper but cooly slotted home the rebound. Drumaness added a second on 26 minutes when Dougan latched onto a defensive lapse by the visitors and fired to the net to make it 2-0 and looked to be in control.

The Drumaness keeper Kearney was having a busy afternoon as he made three top class saves to protect the home teams lead but could do nothing on 32 minutes when his defenders backed off and allowed Robb time and space to pick his spot from the edge of the box.

It was 2-2 before half-time when 3 crossed from the right wing and found Robb lurking at the back post and he made no mistake from close range on 41 minutes. The last action of the half seen another fine save from Kearney in the home nets tipping a pile driver from Warrington over the bar.

The second half saw both teams largely cancel each other out with the visitors looking more likely to score without really testing the home keeper who again was equal to everything that came his way. Both sets of defenders were in control and in midfield both teams could not find the final ball needed to open up the oposition’s defences. As the half developed Drumaness posed little by way of an attacking threat and therefore it remained at 2-2 after 90 minutes.

Drumaness MIlls midfielfder Owen Wright on the ball with Fivemiletown’s Kyle Thompson challenging.

Extra time saw both sets of players struggling to maintain the pace of the first 90 minutes and as both sides clearly physically tired, penalties looked a certainty. Both sides had a couple of half chances but could not engineer any real clear cut chances.

Drumaness won the penalty shootout 4-2 which included a fine save from Mills keeper Kearney but it was McGivern, Wright, Bell and Dougan who scored the crucial spot kicks.

Drumaness Mills: Peter Kearney, Jamie Morgan, Keegan Domican, Daniel Bell, Benjamin Campbell, Aaron Ibinson, James McGivern, Owen Wright, Callum Dougan, Sean McQuoid, Adam Kearney. Subs: Conor Carew for Ibinson, Gavin McEvoy, Oran Carew for McQuoid

Fivemiletown Utd: Conor McCarney, Jamie Stewart, Christopher McDowell, Nathan Sherry, Gary Trotter, Kyle Thompson, Simon Robb, Stefan McMaster, Ashley McFarland, Patrick McKernan, Simon Warrington: Subs: Nathan Copeland, Jason Cluff for McKernan, Padraig Murphy, Nikodem Hareza, Scott Johnston, Gareth Carrothers.