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| PSNI |
3 |
| Killymoon Rangers |
0 |
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Sat 3 October 2009, Championship 2
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| Kick off. 3:00pm |
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| After a 2 week break, Killymoon Rangers travelled to Newforge Lane to face the PSNI in the Ladbrokes.com Championship 2, looking to put a poor performance against Wakehurst behind them. Manager Don Smyth handed Stuart Glasgow a debut after signing on loan from Cookstown Youth, starting in central midfield along with David McMullan. |
| The Killymoon defence was put under immediate pressure as the PSNI went close in the first minute, but the Cookstown side began to settle as the half progressed with Johnny Young looking bright and consequently found himself on the end of some heavy PSNI tackles. The Killymoon winger was causing the home side plenty of problems down the left flank, ably supported by full-back James Ferguson, but it was the PSNI who drew first blood on 20 minutes. The referee adjudged McMullan to have made a foul 30 yards from the visitors’ goal and from the resulting free-kick found the feet of a PSNI forward, who had the space and time to turn and shoot past Gary Stewart in the Killymoon goal. Despite the set back Killymoon still looked capable of getting back into the game with Trevor Brownlee going close on the half hour and not long after McMullan broke through the home defence and with only the keeper to beat he was fouled from behind by a defender, who was promptly sent off by the referee, who awarded a free-kick on just outside the penalty area. From the resulting free-kick, Young struck his effort into the wall and the danger was cleared. PSNI went close with a long range effort shortly after, but it was Killymoon who had the best chances before the break. The first fell to Willie Watson, when the home keeper dropped the ball in a crowded penalty area, but Watson’s snap shot went wide and on the stroke of half-time Brownlee found himself through on goal, but his attempted lob was saved by the keeper. |
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After an encouraging end to the half and with a man advantage it was the visitors who started the second half strongest, but never created any clear cut chances as they looked uncertain what to do with the extra space they were given. On 53 minutes they were made to pay for their indecisiveness when PSNI broke quickly. A couple of passes found the home side on the edge of the Killymoon penalty area and despite having 5 players defending the goal they all drifted to the player in possession, who simply switched play to an unmarked team mate and he gave Stewart no chance and doubled his side’s lead. The visitors seemed to be shell shocked and looked devoid of ideas, although the introduction of Gary Crooks gave them some bite in the midfield and later Patrick McElhatton, who had a couple of half chances to reduce the deficit. As the game progressed the visitors’ got more frustrated and the PSNI dealt comfortably with anything thrown at them. With the clock running down Stephen McElhatton had to be replaced by Conall Kilpatrick, after a late challenge forced the Killymoon captain off. Unfortunately for Kilpatrick he was caught soon after by a bouncing ball on the edge of his penalty area and when trying to clear it with his boot, connected with the face of an opponent and the referee pointed immediately to the penalty spot. The spot kick was duly dispatched by the PSNI keeper to cap a miserable second half display by Killymoon. |
| The only positive aspect for Don Smyth was the composed debut of Glasgow, who didn’t look overawed and was comfortable on the ball throughout the game. It doesn’t get any easier this week with the visit of Knockbreda to the Sports Arena this Saturday, kick-off 3pm.
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1. G Stewart
2. S McElhatton
3. A Ferson
4. J Ferguson
5. A Neill
6. D McMullan
7. S Glasgow
8. W Smith
9. T Brownlee
10. J Young
11. W Watson
Subs
12. G Crooks
13. P McElhatton
14. C Kilpatrick |
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