YCOB force AFC to pay the penalty after stalemate

Banbridge YCOB sneaked past Banbridge Town AFC with a 4-1 penalty victory on Saturday afternoon.
Paul Walsh made no mistake with his penalty, helping Banbridge YCOB to victory.  INBL1536-248EBPaul Walsh made no mistake with his penalty, helping Banbridge YCOB to victory.  INBL1536-248EB
Paul Walsh made no mistake with his penalty, helping Banbridge YCOB to victory. INBL1536-248EB

The rearranged Cup match had been hyped up for two weeks, but it didn’t live up to everyone’s expectations.

It was very much nip and tuck stuff in the opening minutes with AFC hustling YCOB and not giving them much time on the ball to play their normal passing game.

It was AFC who had the best chance of the opening quarter when their centre forward was one on one with O’Hagan in the YCOB goal, but was thwarted by a superb point blank save.

Shortly after this, McKay was brought down in the box and the usually reliable Gartland was unable to capitalise from 12 yards out. The rest of the first half was both teams defending well and not giving each other many goal chances.

As the game went on, it got hot and heavy in the midfield in true derby style with the tackles flying in from both teams.

Burns and Moses where replaced with Walsh and Nelson with 20 minutes to go but couldn’t affect the game which ended goalless after 90 minutes.

YCOB Manager Kieran McCourt then made the change of the game when he threw on supersub Mucker McGrath for the injured McAlinden. This bold move paid dividends with Mucker causing AFC problems in the air and on the deck too with his nifty football.

Extra time also failed to provide any goals though, so it was down to the dreaded penalties to decide the game.

YCOB Captain Danny McAlinden blasted the first penalty into the top corner to make it 1-0. AFC missed their first penalty with McArdle making it 2-0. AFC’s second penalty was saved again by MOTM O’Hagan and even when the referee called for a re-take, the impressive O’Hagan again kept it out.

Walsh and McGrath both scored either side of a converted AFC spot-kick to put YCOB through.

YCOB: O’Hagan 9, S McAlinden 6, D McAlinden 8, Devlin 8, Nelson 7, Gartland 6, McArdle 7, Drainey 7, Burns 7, McKay 6 Moses 7, McGrath 8, Nelson 7, Walsh 7

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