Drumaness produce killer goals at death

19 October 2016

MALACHIANS were left hanging high and dry by Drumaness Mills salvage hunters Stefan Mason and Brendan Ward.

The in-form Belfast visitors seemed to have secured a draw when Mark McCourt cancelled out Mason’s first half strike with a penalty in the closing minutes, but boy did the Mills have a sting in the tail.

With the game in added time, Ward was in the right place at the right time and when ‘keeper Niall Largey spilled an innocuous free kick from Sean McQuoid, the commanding centre half drilled the ball home from close range.

Mason put the icing on the cake less than two minutes later when he latched on to a McQuoid pass, raced away from the halfway line and beat Largey all ends up with a blistering strike.

The Meadowvale pitch looked a picture before kick off, but on closer inspection there was a lot of surface water in parts and the playing surface was sticky around the middle.

The Mills did the early pressing, as expected, but they nearly paid the price of playing the ball out of defence in the fourth minute when Terry McDonald and McCourt wasted a glorious opportunity to score when the ball was held up in the water.

Malachians were content to see the Mills play the ball in front of them and then strike on the break.This tactic almost paid off in the 16th minute when Drumaness were again guilty of sloppy passing and McDonald wasn’t too far off the target with an angled shot.

Both sides struggled to find a killer ball as the action was becalmed for a while, but all that changed in the 43rd minute. McQuoid, who was strangely on the periphery of the game, somehow dispossessed a Malachians defender from the back on the edge of the six yard box and Mason did the rest with a clinical finish to the back of the net.

Malachians should have equalised in the 45th minute when Peter Black put the ball on a plate for Brendy Adams with a measured through ball, but he shot wide.

Five minutes into the second half Mason left his marker for dead, but he fired wide after doing all the hard work.

The same player then missed an absolute sitter when Chris Curran-Cochrane crossed from the left, but to be fair, the ball came at him late after Michael McGarritty had missed the initial chance.

Malachians enjoyed a period of dominance after this and Steven Keenan saved well from McDonald before the visitors drew level. Johhny McKnight lost possession in the middle of the park and the Mills needlessly conceded a penalty when Malachians got men into the box.

McCourt wasted no time in hammering a thunderbolt penalty past a helpless Keenan.

Drumaness tried to retaliate, but Justin Barlow headed McGarritty’s cross over the top before Ward struck.

The big central defender, who enjoyed a spell at Kilmore Rec as the main striker, showed his predatory instincts when Largey, who came off his line to take a head high free kick from McQuoid. The custodian tried to catch the ball, but it spilled from his grasp and Ward blasted it home.

A stunned Malachians conceded a third when McQuoid sent Mason racing clear and the young striker made no mistake with a thunderous finish to complete the job.

Drumaness Mills: S Keenan, T McConville, C Black, M Rainey, B Ward, J McKnight, O Wright, M McGarritty, S Mason, S McQuoid, C Curran-Cochrane. Subs: P Walsh, J Patterson, J Barlow.

Malachians: N Largey, P Black, A Sharpe, N McAuley, D Hackett, D McDonald, S Patterson, S Quinn, T McDonald, M McCourt, B Adams. Subs: P Turley, J McAtee, L McManus.

Drumaness Mills 3

Malachians 1

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