|
| |
| Killymoon Legends 1 Cookstown United Legends 2 |
| |
| It may have been the night of the World Cup Qualifiers, but the big game of the night was taking place at the Mid-Ulster Sports Arena. Unfortunately the ‘big’ only referred to the waistlines of players of Killymoon Rangers and Cookstown United, who shuffled down memory lane, as they pulled on their boots and tried to re-capture past glories in a game sponsored by The Mint Café Bar. |
| Cookstown’s Jeff Hagan was the first player to show his ‘past glories’ with a trade mark ‘tackle’ on David Wilson, as the Killymoon player looked to have broken through the Cookstown back line, but he hadn’t bargained on Hagan’s last ditch challenge. The game was evenly balanced, without any side having many clear cut chances, but after 20 minutes Alan Shaw opened the scoring with an effort from 25 yards. The big striker showed that he still knew where the goals were, when he took one touch before hitting his shot into the top corner of Rodney Montgomery’s net. After the goal the game started to open up and Maurice Hodgett found himself with just Cookstown keeper Niall Hunter to beat, but his attempted chip failed to get over the tall keeper. |
| The ‘fitness’ levels may have dropped in the second half, but the excitement definitely increased with both sides creating numerous chances. Killymoon manager, Eddie Hudson, was determined to get his side back into the game and was leading by example, but it was Cookstown who doubled their lead on 55 minutes. Danny Lawn showed he still hadn’t lost his enthusiasm for the game as he capitalised on a mistake in the Killymoon defence to score. Killymoon had to push forward in an attempt to get back into the game and this left gaps at the back with both Lawn and Barry Monaghan going close. At the other end Keith Hall’s cross-come-shot had Hunter beat, but he was saved by the cross-bar. The Cookstown stopper however, had no chance a few minutes later when a long clearance from Montgomery was collected by D. Wilson who slipped the ball to Jeff Lamont and the midfielder got the goal his overall performance deserved as he went around Hunter before knocking the ball into the net. This gave Killymoon the boost that they needed and Hudson had an excellent opportunity to equalise after a goal mouth scramble, but after attempting to go around Hunter 3 times he got dizzy and the danger was cleared. At the other end Denis McElhatton was getting frustrated by the referee who found it difficult to believe he had beat the off-side trap and was 10 yards clear of his markers, therefore ruling him off-side on several occasions, as well as showing him a yellow card for dissent. Shaw nearly sealed the game with his second goal, but sliced his effort wide when well place and it looked to have been costly when D. Wilson got on the end of a cross to score past Hunter, but to the disappointment of the Killymoon followers the referee again couldn’t believe any player could move so fast and still be on-side, and disallowed the goal for off-side. With a number of players looking to the bench hoping to be replaced, but finding no takers, the game ended with Cookstown claiming the spoils. |
| Despite the second defeat for manager Eddie Hudson, he was given the ‘vote of confidence’ as this was a much improved performance by the Killymoon OAP’s. On the other hand there was a question mark over the future of Cookstown manager, Sean Donnelly, as he was questioned over some of his decisions by his team after the game in the Mint Café Bar. The argument from the players has changed over the years and was ‘why did you not substitute me?’ rather than ‘why did you bring me off?’ |
| Everyone seemed to enjoy the game as well as the post match food kindly provided by the Mint Café Bar. The main topic of conversation after the match was more about the various aches and pains suffered by the players rather than the performance on the pitch, but hopefully everyone will be fit again for a re-match next year. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
