UlsterNet.co.uk

Comrades grab dramatic winner

Thursday, 26 January 2012

Glenn Pierce beats his defender in the air to test the Queens keeper. SE0415

Ballyclare Comrades 2, Queen's University 1: BALLYCLARE Comrades returned to league action for the first time since the turn of the year with a hard-fought win over fellow promotion chasers Queen's University, in a game with a very dramatic finish.
Comrades manager Eddie Hill was without right-back Craig Reid, with transfer window signing Aaron Montgomery stepping in. Joint-top scorer Ricky Higgins was still out with a broken toe, so Stephen McDowell got another start in attack.
The game kicked off with a strong wind blowing and with the pitch rather boggy, having been adversely affected by recent wet weather. Both sides struggled to adapt to the difficult conditions early on and there was little in the way of goalmouth action to report.
The first half chance fell to Comrades on 17 minutes when an Andrew Simms free-kick from 20 yards deflected off the wall towards Keith Armstrong who was following in. However, with the chance falling rather sharply to him, he could only scuff the ball wide from four yards out.
Play was fairly evenly balanced in the first half. Although Comrades had the wind behind them, it was not proving to be of much advantage, making the weighting of balls forward difficult. Neither side, were making much headway going forward, despite putting in a lot of effort.
Keepers remained untroubled for most of the half, but on 45 minutes a golden opportunity game the way of the home side. Queen's had been enjoying a spell of attacking, but Comrades eventually managed to break out and Stuart Galbraith picked out a superb ball from around the half-way line to set Keith Armstrong free down the left. Armstrong then advanced and played in a perfect cross to find the head of Stephen McDowell, who had done well to arrive in a great position four yards from goal and with only the keeper to beat. However the strikers' glancing header fell inches wide of the far post and the sides therefore went in at the interval on level terms.
The second half started with Comrades obviously fired up by the half-time team talk and very much on the front foot. Their play was quicker and more incisive than it had been in the first half and they began to cause the Queen's defence problems.
In the 52nd minute Scott Irvine cut in from the right and shot from a difficult angle 15 yards out, with keeper Duff having to palm his effort out.
Then, four minutes later, with the home side still pressing, the opening goal came, as a super Stephen McDowell shot from 16 yards found the bottom corner of the net, just eluding the fingertips of the diving keeper.
After this Comrades continued to play some enterprising attacking football, although chances were elusive. At the other end the home side's defence was coping admirably with the potentially dangerous Queen's attack, so Paddy Flood was not called on to make any really difficult saves.
The Comrades keeper was called into action in the 79th minute, when McDonald fired in a decent shot from the edge of the box, having been set up by Lavery, but his effort was saved comfortably by Flood low on his line.
Seconds later, at the other end, an Aaron Montgomery attempted cross from the right drifted towards goal and struck the crossbar, although the keeper may have had it covered if it had been on target.

Subscribe to read full newspaper »

Send this page to a friend »