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The happy Glenavon squad celebrate with the
prestigious Rushmere Shopping Mid Ulster Cup. The game was the
118th Final since its inception in 1887. |
Glenavon brought
home the first silverware of the season with a thoroughly well deserved
victory over Loughgall in the Rushmere Shopping Mid Ulster Cup
Final at Lakeview Park tonight. The Lurgan Blues played all the football
with Loughgall's one-dimensional long ball game coming to naught thanks
to a solid performance at the centre of Glenavon's defence by skipper
Johnny Wright and Davy McAlinden.
Glenavon would have taken the lead in the 16th minute when McVeigh
touched Walsh's through ball past the keeper but the striker slipped
just as he was about to apply a finishing touch to the ball as it rolled
goal wards, giving Wallace the chance to clear it.
In the first minute of the second half Walsh showed a good touch to
control Clifford's punt up field and he tested Robinson with a fierce
first time shot that the Loughgall keeper couldn't hold. Within 60
seconds Sterritt saw his cross hit the top of the Glenavon bar but Man of the Match Derek Delaney got
what proved to be the winner in the 52nd
minute with a clinical right foot strike into the opposite side of the
net after Walsh wove a path through the Loughgall defence and
picked him out with a measured low cross.
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Derek Delany receives his Man of the Match
award from Mid-Ulster FA Chairman Noel McClure |
Robinson made a brilliant finger tip save to push McMahon's 30 yard
strike over the bar two minutes later. Jimmy Gardiner then threw on two
of his subs but it was veteran former-Glenavon midfielder Keith Percy
who went close to grabbing an equaliser when his downward header struck
the base of the post on the hour mark, with Wright clearing Coulter's
follow up shot off the line.
Walsh then saw a goal bound strike from O'Connor's flick on deflected
for a corner and Walsh fired a low shot into the side netting from the
corner of the box.
O'Connor had a great chance to seal the victory in the 75th minute
when he made a characteristic late run into the box to get on the end of
Delany's through ball. He seemed to have taken the ball around the
keeper but somehow lost control and allowed it to run out for a goal
kick when a tap in looked a certainty.
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Derek Delaney's crisp finish won the game for
Glenavon and earned him the Man of the Match Award. |
Loughgall's overly physical approach resulted in three yellow cards
and one red with Wallace being dismissed in the 74th minute for a head
butt on McAlinden. Gareth Murray was the recipient of a number of
disgraceful challenges that eventually saw him limp off in the 80th
minute.
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Stephen Carroll was singled out for special
praise after the game by his skipper Johnny Wright "The wee
keeper was brilliant!". |
In the dying seconds, with Loughgall piling forward, Glenavon's 16 year old rookie keeper Stephen
Carroll punched out one cross and made a clean catch of another before
pulling off a brilliant close range save to ensure that the Mid
Ulster Cup made a welcome return to the Mourneview Park Trophy cabinet
for the first time since 1999.
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