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| Killymoon Rangers |
4 |
| Chimney Corner |
1 |
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Sat 30 January 2010, Championship 2
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| 3.00 pm kick off |
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| Killymoon Rangers began the season with a comprehensive win away to last Saturday’s opponents Chimney Corner. Since the opening day fixture the Antrim side has seen many changes with a new manager taking over and a lot of changes in the playing personnel. Despite languishing at the foot of the table, recent results had seen a marked improvement and Killymoon manager, Don Smyth, was well aware that all the good work by his players the previous week could easily be undone by underestimating the opposition. Gareth McElhatton got a recall to the first team in place of the injured Michael Brown and new arrival Willie Ferguson was given a debut in the centre of midfield. |
| The first half was a scrappy affair with neither side taking control and few goal scoring opportunities. Lee Hunter had the first effort, but he couldn’t keep his header down when well placed in front of goal. The visitors went close on a couple of occasions, shooting narrowly wide from the edge of the penalty area. The Killymoon front men of Patrick McElhatton and Warren Smith were living of scraps as the game became bogged down in the midfield, but Conall Kilpatrick was keeping the Corner strikers at bay with a commanding performance, ably assisted by Andy Neill, Gary Crooks and Steven McElhatton. It took until the 40th minute before the home side strung together their first decent move of the match and it resulted in the opening goal. Johnny Young found Neill breaking from the backline and into a good shooting position just outside the penalty area, but the right back slipped the ball wide to Stuart Glasgow who cut in from the wing before firing a shot across the Corner keeper into the net (1-0). This was the young midfielder's first goal for Killymoon and it immediately lifted the confidence of the whole team. J. Young nearly doubled the lead minutes later, but his effort went narrowly over. For the second week in a row Killymoon had broken the deadlock just before half time in games were there was little between the teams and changed the course of the match. |
| The second half was a completely different affair, with Killymoon dominating the play with the midfield of J. Young, Glasgow, Ferguson and Hunter starting to knock the ball about with confidence and feed their front men. Ali Young who replaced P. McElhatton at half-time was able to upset the visiting defence with his physical presence as the young Corner side found it difficult to sustain up their performance from the first half. On 54 minutes J. Young collected a ball from a corner before cutting inside and firing in a shot that was well saved by the Corner keeper, but within 5 minutes the home side had doubled the lead. Glasgow rolled the ball to Smith, who side stepped his marker before shooting low into the corner of the net from 20 yards (2-0). This seemed to kill off the visitors and 2 minutes later it was 3 nil. A scuffed shot from the edge of the penalty area by J. Young came to Smith in front of goal and Killymoon’s leading scorer made no mistake nodding the ball into the net (3-0). It was all one way traffic at this point with Hunter, Ferguson and an extravagant overhead kick by David McMullan going close to extending the lead before A Young collected another pass from Glasgow before getting into the box and shooting low into the net for number four (4-0). The final 5 minutes saw the spirited visitors push the Killymoon defence back and on the final whistle they scored a consolation with the goal of the match, a sweetly struck volley from 10 yards, giving G. McElhatton no chance in the Killymoon goal and preventing another clean sheet for the Cookstown side. |
| Despite the sluggish first half this was another good 3 points for Don Smyth’s side and their third home victory in a row. |
1. G McElhatton
2. S McElhatton
3. C Kilpatrick
4. G Crooks
5. A Neill
6. S Glasgow
7. J Young
8. L Hunter
9. W Ferguson
10. P McElhatton
11. W Smith
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12. A Young
13. D McMullan
14. D Donaghy
15. M Stewart |
