Minnows claim big H
BAY BOYNE HARPS 3 2
BOYNE Harps’ hopes of achieving a Premier Division/Tully Bookmakers Cup double this season were shattered on Sunday morning as they bowed out of the knockout competition to giant-killing Division 2 club Bay at Muirhevnamor.
Mark Larkin set the tone early on with a bullet of a free kick that was brilliantly saved by Harps keeper Jack Boylan.
The visitors then had the ball in the back of the home net, but Guy Bates was ruled offside before he finished.
Bay’s Shaun O’Connor was then played in by Paddy Connor, but the winger blasted his shot over the bar.
Harps did press late in the half, but Kevin Mullen and his defence marshalled the Drogheda side’s frontline with authority.
The deadlock was broken two minutes before the interval. A fantastic through-ball by Connor split the Boyne defence and as Boylan sprinted out winger Kevin Scollon caught it on the half-volley and lobbed the advancing keeper to send Bay in one up at the break.
Harps came out after the break with a point to prove and they grabbed the equaliser when the ball came across the Bay sixyard box and Graham Reynolds was there to tap home from close range.
The away side pressed their possession home 10 minutes later as they took the lead through former Drogheda United star Bates who curled a superb shot into the far corner with little or no room.
Moments later the visitors nearly made it 3-1 but were denied by a fine finger-tip save by Bay keeper Mullen.
It looked like Bay’s chances of progressing were fading away, but they kept their heads and their patience paid off when substitute Gavin Donnelly spun on a sixpence and played O’Connor through one-on-one and the