Bellurgan bow out
Brilliant
THIS was essentially a meaningless match between two teams at the bottom end of the table but whose place is secure in the premier division.
Thus Rock manager Paudie Gollogly took the opportunity to run the rule over some more of the young talents in the club at Sandy Lane on Thursday night.
Ironically then what they lacked was the craft and goalscoring talent of their two most experienced players David Ward and Derek Delany who stood watching on from the stand as prolific poacher Barry Kavanagh stole the show, bagging another hat-trick in his goals laden career.
However, there was encouragement for the home manger in the manner in which his charges played, and showed fighting spirit to recover from falling two nil behind to draw level with just under 20 minutes remaining, with young debutant Conor Soraghan marking his debut by scoring one of the goals, only for Kavanagh to score his third and the decisive goal seven minutes from time.
Duleek opened the scoring after five minutes but Soraghan reduced the deficit before the break, and his fellow central defender Shane O’Callaghan with a powerful header.
Veteran Paul Scanlon who filled in for regular goalkeeper John Rogers pulled off a flying tip over save to keep it two all after Sean Hand had a great chance to put Rock ahead when he raced past the Duleek goalkeeper in the penalty box. Left with a narrow angle he tried to set up a colleague but his pull back was intercepted.
Kavanagh secured the points with a trade mark finish, with Rock protesting that he was in an offside position.
ROCK: Paul; Scanlon, Liam McDonnell, Ferghal McDonald, Shane O’Callaghan, Conor Soraghan, Eanna McArdle, Ed Maguire( Paddy Reilly), Aidan Curtin, Brendan Rogers, Ronan Sands, Sean Hande.
BELLURGAN UNITED NEWFOUNDWELL 0 2
BOTH Bellurgan and Newfoundwell’s seasons hinged on the result of this refixed tie that was postponed the previous week out of the running in the league, the cup remained their only avenue for glory in the admittedly short interim season.
For Bellurgan it was a big challenge to reverse the dismal form over their past two matches in which they suffered heavy defeats and conceded 14 goals in the process.
They welcomed back a number of more experienced players but the concession of two slack goals in the first-half proved too much of an obstacle to overcome, although they were the better team, dominating much of the play.
They didn’t help their cause by wasting a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit in the closing 20 minutes when Alan Connor put a spot kick wide.
The Newfoundwell goalkeeper also proved unbeatable on the day, bringing off a handful of brilliant saves to end Bellurgan’s season, while the winners can look forward to a semi-final date with Trim Celtic next Sunday.
Bellurgan suffered an early setback when Christian Lotefa was forced off with a hamstring injury after 15 minutes.
Then they paid the penalty for poor defending when Newfoundwell took the lead on the half hour.
The visitors added their second, again in disappointing fashion from a defensive point of view, and psychologically a bad time with Newfoundwell scoring virtually with the last kick of the half. BELLURGAN: Robert Arthur, Owen Traynor, Ray Finnegan, Aoghan McGuinness, Sean Matthews (Cian McDonald), Brian White, Christian Lotefa (Alan Connor), Tadgh O’Connor (Saheed Ogunfuworo), Shane O’Brien (Diarmuid Murphy), Owen Armstrong, Ciaran Sheelan. BAY were crowned North East division 2 champions on Friday night as they overcame local rivals Redeemer Celtic in the play-off for the title at Glenmuir Park.
They reversed the result from when the sides met in the course of the campaign and while hard on Redeemer who were set for glory after that one nil victory back in September, only for a subsequent surprise defeat away to Virginia to afford Bay the opportunity to pull up the ground to force this showdown.
But they graciously accepted the outcome. ‘All credit to Bay they were worthy winners on the night,’ commented Redeemer official Stephen Fisher, and commended the winners on how they didn’t allow their great run in the cup to detract