Comrades march on in the cup
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Ballyclare Comrades 2 Ballymoney United 1
Saturday 18th October 2008 - Steel & Sons Cup
(Quarter-Final)
COMRADES took another step closer to a second Steel Cup final in successive seasons with a hard fought 2-1 win over Ballymoney at Dixon Park.
After last week's gutsy display at Portadown, Jamesy Kirk stuck with the same staring line up, which meant that last year's player of the season Paul Caldwell had to be content with a place on the bench, despite his return from suspension.
The home side started very well and were on the front foot straight away with a number of lively attacking moves. They we rewarded with an early goal. Mark Craig was fouled on the right wing half way inside the Ballymoney half. Davy Freyne played the free-kick deep to the far post, over the keeper, where Michael Smith did very well to head it back along the goal line for Eddie Hill to touch the ball into an unguarded net.
Although Comrades looked on top at this stage, they were grateful for the alertness of Ian Mannus on 21 minutes, when a ball into the box broke to McKinney in a great position 9 yards out. However, the Ballymoney striker was foiled by a fine block from the outrushing keeper which preserved his side's lead.
On 25 minutes Comrades created a great chance to go further ahead. Excellent play by Eddie Hill saw him beat two men to get to the left corner of the box, before feeding Gary Bell, who looked to have made space for a shot inside the box, but instead slipped the ball to his right to Ronnie Burns, in an even better position. Burns struck his shot well enough from 10 yards, but hit it too close to keeper Smyth who, to be fair, pulled off a fine save. From the resulting corner Comrades came close again, with Eddie Hill glancing a header, from Davy Freyne's dangerous ball in, just wide of the far post.
Comrades suffered a major blow on 29 minute when Eddie Hill suffered a back injury which forced him to leave the field and be substituted. Hill had been a constant irritant to the visitors up to then and his departure deprived Comrades of much of their attacking threat and shape. As a consequence the rest of the half was scrappy, with Comrades failing to creating anything much of note and the visitors not over troubling the Comrades rearguard.
The second half began brightly enough for Comrades. Two minutes in good play by Mark Craig set up Ronnie Burns for a shot from just inside the box, but his effort flew well over the bar.
However, the general pattern was scrappy, with Comrades struggling to regain their form of the first half hour of the game. Indeed the game was much more even now in terms of attacking possession, with Ballymoney coming into the game.
The visitors' attacking play had been foiled by some solid Comrades defending and poor final balls, but on 62 minutes they grabbed an equaliser. A free-kick was won on the right and the ball was played to the back post where Gareth Hill out-jumped Aaron Wallace and headed wide of Ian Mannus and into the net.
At this stage the equaliser was not really a surprise as Comrades had gone off the boil. Ballymoney were now playing with greater confidence and spending much more time in the Comrades half than the home fans would have liked.
However, on 70 minutes Comrades caught the visitors on the break to regain the lead. Andy Long broke up a Ballymoney attack and played the ball forward to Mark Craig on the halfway line. Craig did very well to turn his marker, leaving him for dead and then found a pass into the run of Michael Smith who had surged powerfully forward through the stretched visitors' defence. Smith then advanced into the box from the left and struck a fine finish from 12 yards past the advancing keeper.
Now Comrades self belief seemed to return and they began to look much more in control of the game. They might have virtually sealed the win on 74 minutes when with the home side pressing forward, Andy Long played the ball to Mark Craig in the box and the Comrades striker struck a low shot from 10 yards which was only kept out by a great save by Smyth.
On 77 minutes Jamesy Kirk made a couple of substitutions bringing on Paul Caldwell and Kyle Agnew, the latter making a welcome return to the side after a remarkable recovery from injuries sustained in a serious road accident during the close season.
Comrades had a half chance on 83 minutes when Ballymoney failed to clear a corner and the ball fell to Mark Craig 12 yard out, but his shot on the turn sailed wide of the target.
The final minutes of the match saw Ballymoney pressing for an equaliser to take the game to extra-time. However, they failed to seriously trouble the home goal until a minute into injury-time, when a free-kick into the box was headed over the bar by David Gage from a fairly good position 8 yards from goal.
This was to be the last chance of the match and the final whistle brought Comrades a place in the semi-finals where the possibility of a derby match against East Antrim rivals Larne or Carrick Rangers awaits, as well as a potential tie with ground share tenants Ards.
This was a game which Comrades deserved to win, if only for their dominance in the first 30 minutes. After that the game was more even, but Comrades defended pretty well and generally kept the Ballymoney threat to a minimum. However, the injury to the very much in form Eddie Hill was worrying and it is to be hoped it will not keep him out for too long.
Ballyclare Comrades team: Ian Mannus, Michael Smith, Andy Long, Evan Forsythe, Davy Freyne, Mark Craig, Simon McGowan, Stuart McClean, Gary Bell, Ronnie Burns, Eddie Hill
Bench: Aaron Wallace (29 mins, for Hill), Kyle Agnew (77 mins, for Burns), Paul Caldwell (77 mins, for Wallace), Andy Simms (not used), Allen Huxley (not used)
