EXTRA CLASS AND FITNESS SAW US THROUGH

PAUL TRAINOR insists no one can question Crumlin Star’s heart after his club retained their Border Cup crown despite being reduced to 10 men for much of the final.

Paul Prigent saw red midway through the second half, with the Ardoyne outfit at a disadvantage for the rest of the allotted 90 minutes and then for much of extra-time before Jason Noade’s second yellow close to the final whistle levelled things up. A clearly 01.01.2019 fired-up Ballynahinch Olympic certainly tested Star’s stomach for a fight, taking a 57th minute lead which they held on to until the 90th. But in the end, the Premier Division champions once again proved they have steel to back up their talent, with Joe Mcneill striking at the death to send the game into extra-time and eventually penalties.

“We just keep digging in and they just don’t know when they are beat,” said Trainor (inset).

“I thought it [the equaliser] was never going to come but we kept pressing and kept pressing and the Ballynahinch goalkeeper got man of the match, so that sums it up.

“With 10 men, we kept digging in. We took chances at the back but the boys were brilliant and for 25 minutes we played with 10 men.

“We were unreal and I thought our fitness really came into play too, we’ve worked hard on it over the last lot of weeks, and our fitness was very, very good and I just thought if there was going to be a winner in extra-time it was going to be us because I think Ballynahinch Olympic were a wee bit deflated with the way we equalised so late on.

“They were really pumped up, well organised and with pace up front, fair play to Ballynahinch, they put it up to us and they will take points off a lot of teams in the Premier Division.”

Trainor’s men crashed to their first defeat in Amateur League competition in more than a year on Saturday when Abbey Villa ousted them from the Clarence Cup in a penalty shoot-out at Adams Park.

But the Star chief dismissed suggestions of a cup final hangover, insisting an influx of players will shake things up.

“We have Gary Lavery back training with us, Conor Hagan has signed,

Noel Halfpenny is back and two or three kids in the reserves are ready so we’re looking good,” said the Star chief.

DEVASTATION Ryan Walsh is consoled by Ballynahinch teammates after the shootout defeat STAR TURNS Crumlin Star’s Ciaran Murphy turns away from Olympic’s Jason Noade NO ORDINARY JOE Star goalscorer Joe Mcneill battles it out with Ryan Noade of Ballynahinch