Dromara Village 5
DROMARA travelled to local rivals Drumaness knowing that anything other than a win would see them sucked into the relegation battle.
Before the match manager McDonagh had made his players aware of the importance of this match
and despite missing regulars Drake, Feeney and Graham McDonagh, Dromara secured an excellent victory.
The game exploded into life when with only 12 seconds on the clock. From the kick off the ball was played to full back Paul Johnson and his long ball up field looked pretty harmless until it was misjudged by the Mills centre half and the ball fell kindly to the in-rushing Aaron Thompson. He delightfully lobbed the keeper from about 25 yards to give Dromara a superb start.
The Dromara players were clearly up for this match as they were not giving the Mills any space and were knocking the ball about well on the big pitch. The midfield of Jess, Doherty and the excellent McNamee and KP Johnson were enjoying the battle and were creating plenty for the lively Thompson and O’Connor.
Dromara made it 2-0 with barely 10 minutes on the clock when, after a Mills attack, Dromara broke at breathtaking pace. The ball was cleared to Jonny Jess and his superb pass released O’Connor on the right flank. He skipped passed the Mills full back with ease before firing a cross into the box which found Thompson who made no mistake with a simple tap in.
This start clearly had Mills rattled and it was not until midway through the half that they started to cause the Dromara defence some sort of problems. But keeper Paul Rice was equal to everything they could throw at him and saved well when faced with a couple of one on one situations.
The second half saw Dromara start the same way they started the first and came out all guns blazing. It was no surprise when they made it 3-0 when good play found O’Connor and he played in Jess on the right who cut in and fired in a shot which was only parried by the Mills keeper and KP Johnson showed plenty of determination to poke home the loose ball.
The Mills players’ heads dropped and Dromara were looking to kill this game off as a contest. They did that in spectactular fashion.
With about 60 minutes gone good play in the middle of the park found O’Connor over the top with a superb through the ball and from the edge of the box he fired a stunning volley into the roof of the net, giving the keeper no chance what so ever.
Dromara got their fifth goal of the afternoon when a corner from the right wing was headed in by Aaron Thompson for his hat-trick and this rounded off a man of the match performance from him.
Drumaness made a few changes to see if they could get a goal or two from the match but the Dromara defence were in no mood to give them anything. This was evident when Mills were awarded a penalty but Wright saw his spot kick well saved by Paul Rice.
