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Clonmany lifts West End Cup
21.04.09
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Clonmany Shamrocks...0 Redcastle United...0 (AET Clonmany won 3-0 on penalties) by Liam Porter, Inishowen Independent, at Maginn Park BRUCE GROBBELAAR-style antics from Clonmany goalkeeper Peter Devlin saw him win the mind games over Redcastle on Sunday night to make three dramatic penalty shoot-out saves and seal the West End League Cup title for his side. Devlin sustained an injury in extra time but recovered sufficiently to make a brilliant last gasp stop from Redcastle’s Brian Tracey with just seconds left on the clock and force the game to the shoot-out. And then the Clonmany keeper came into his own. He got a strong right hand to Eamon Donnelly’s strike to give his team the advantage after captain Raymond McDaid had tucked away his shot, and that was just the start. |
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Turning his cap sidewards
and then dancing on his line a-la-Grobbelaar, he might
have been hoping to put Martin Farren off, but he still
had to follow that up with a fine dive to his left to
beat away the Redcastle defender’s strike. His side was three nil to the good when Martin Doherty and Michael Byrne had added to McDaid’s strike and Devlin had to decide what tack he’d take when he saw his younger brother Michael step forward in the Redcastle colours. He went once again for the Grobbelaar and when he followed the clowning on the line with another good stop, the cup was Clonmany’s. In all honesty it was probably deserved, they certainly had played the better of the two sides on the night, but this |
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was by no means a classic. There were some decent chances and the two best fell to Redcastle’s Brian Tracey, but the Inishowen League’s very own ‘Messi’ was denied twice by Devlin who was simply having one of those inspired nights. On the balance of play though Clonmany were the better team. They used the ball better and at times produced some fine flowing football, but they just produced it too few times to really trouble Redcasle. Brian Bell’s men for their part stuttered in and out of the game. Their talisman Tracey showed some excellent footwork at times but untypically gave the ball away several times with sloppy passes. Worse than that from a Redcastle point of view, he was forced to drop very deep to look for the ball many times, too far away really from where he could inflict maximum danger on the Clonmany goal. It was that kind of game though. Defences were on top and the game was summed up in a nutshell in a passage of play in the 55th minute that saw Martin Farren win a crunching tackle, get up and clip a ball over the top that Phil Pat Doherty nipped in to intercept. The two veteran defenders were on hand time and again to snuff out danger from the opposition, ably aided by their colleagues. Philip Devlin won a huge amount of ball at the heart of the Clonmany defence while Seamus Doherty’s performance at left-back for Redcastle earned him the man of the match award. Not surprisingly then there wasn’t a real chance of note in the early stages as both sides felt their way into the game on the magnificent Maginn surface, but it was Clonmany, who had probably started the worst of the sides, who grabbed the initiative in the 13thd minute. Raymond McDaid fizzed a shot just past Crossan’s post to signal Clonmany’s intentions and a minute later the Redcastle keeper needed quick reactions and a strong hand to push away a drive from Brendan Devlin. Redcastle hit back with a clever one-two between Tracey and Raymond Campbell at the edge of the box, Campbell firing his shot wide of the target at the end of the good move. And the second half started in much the same fashion. Clonmany forced Crossan into action in the 51st minute to save from Stephen McLaughlin before Redcastle finally carved out an opening in the 63rd minute only to see Devlin make a great save to deny Tracey. Brendan Devlin almost broke the deadlock in the 69th minute with a looping shot that Crossan palmed away and the Redcastle keeper was up quickly to deny Jason Devlin from the rebound. It looked as if would take something special to break the deadlock and it nearly came with an excellent move in the 82nd minute. Substitutes Marty Doherty and Michael Byrne combined to carve out the chance but Byrne’s shot rattled the inside of the post and squirmed away to safety. With that went any chance of a winner in normal time and when Niall McDaid headed wide from a corner early in the second half of extra time, it looked more and more as if it would take penalties to sort this one. And that was definitely the case when Devlin somehow managed to beat away a magnificent volley from Tracey in the dying seconds of extra time. After that it was the lottery of the penalty shoot-out and the Clonmany keeper’s numbers came up trumps… Clonmany: Peter Devlin, Jason Devlin, Liam Hirrell, Phil Pat Doherty, Philip Devlin, Raymond McDaid, Steve Harkin, Mark McLaughlin, Brendan Devlin, Paul McLaughlin, Stephen McLaughlin. Subs: Marty Doherty for Mark McLaughlin (59 mins); Michael Byrne for Brendan Devlin (80 mins); Niall McDaid for Steve Harkin (100 mins); Aidan Doherty, Paddy Harkin. Redcastle Utd: Gerard Crossan, Liam Davenport, Seamus Doherty, Martin Farren, Cathal Faulkner, Jimmy Gallagher, Gavin McCauley, Raymond Campbell, Ciaran A McGrory, Brian Tracey, Eamon Donnelly. Subs: Paul McGowan for Liam Davenport (53 mins); Colm McLaughlin for Gavin McCauley (71 mins); Mickey Devlin for Raymond Campbell (84 mins); Colm McLaughlin. For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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