Five star Ladies through in Irish Cup

Armagh Ladies 0

DROMORE Ladies travelled to Armagh City in the first round of the Irish Cup.

Manager Roger McCartan made a few changes to the starting line up from last week with Amy-Louise Graham coming into midfield and Mel Metcalfe and Ciara McElderry starting up front.

Dromore started the game with 10 players as Lauren Gibson was unable to make kick off time. They began quickly and had Armagh on the back foot without really causing the home goalkeeper too much trouble, good work down the left wing by Amy-Louise and Ciara appearred to be Dromore’s best way of getting to the Armagh goal but time after time the move broke down.

On the other side of the pitch Kerry Taggart and Mel were linking up well and all that was missing was the the final pass that would unlock Armagh’s back four.

Sixteen minutes in and Dromore finally broke the deadlock, a Tracy Orr corner was met on the volley by Kerry Taggart and she smashed the ball high into the roof of the Armagh net.

Dromore, sensing that the young Armagh team, were on the rack began to push hard for the second goal. They didnt have to wait long; four minutes later a 35 yard free kick by Tracy flew towards the Armagh goal, the keeper came out and manged to push the ball over her head and into the empty net.

The away team’s confidence was sky high as Jill Bruce and Lauren Gibson took control of the game, breaking up the home team’s attacks then unleashing defence splitting passes to the front players.

Kerry Taggart beat the offside trap on 35 minutes only to see the ball hit the keeper and go for a corner, then minutes later as she beat the offside trap again the uncoming keeper managed to clear the ball.

In the 40th minute Tracy again sent over a dangerous corner, the home team failed to clear and the ball fell to who Kerry Taggart struck the ball home.

The second half began much like the first with Dromore having the lions share of possesion and after 54 minutes Tracy put a 40 yard free kick into the top corner of the net much to the delight of the Dromore fans on the line.

Armagh looked shell shocked and seemed to run out of ideas and steam as Dromore went for the jugular. Kerry Taggart again got behind the defence only to see the substitute keeper deny her twice.

Roger McCartan then made a double substition with Amy-Louise being replaced by Collette Young and Jill Bruce giving way to Nicky Clements. Sixty minutes in and Dromore had their fifth, a jinxing run by Kerry finished with an exquisite pass found Tracy who had moved from sweeper to centre midfield inside the Armagh box, she took one touch to get the ball out of her feet and beat the keeper with a confident finish to grab a well deserved hat trick.

The rest of the half was just wave after wave of Dromore attacks with Lauren, Kerry and Mel all unlucky not to add more goals to the scoreline. At the other end Laura Magowan in the dromore goal kept her concentration and commanded her 18 yard box to ensure the clean sheet was kept in tact.