Thursday 12 April 2012

Belfast Beckons

The 2nd leg of the Setanta Sports Cup Quarter Final against Cliftoville should have been a formality had we taken the chances we created in the first leg but instead we went to Solitude with a 2 goal lead and Cliftonville still in the tie. Scoring first we would have been a big part of Stephen Kennys team talk but instead we wnet into half time 1-0 down, playing poorly and again squandering the chances we created.
In the 2nd half we did create more and more chance but a combination of the woodwork, good goalkeeping and poor finishing meant we couldn’t finish of the tie and we got duly punished when Cliftonville forced extra time with a late goal to leave the scores 2-2 on aggregate.
After extra time and no further goals it was the 2nd consecutive Cup night penalty shoot out for us and thankfully it turned out to be the 2nd consecutive penalty shoot out success with Oscar Jansson again proving his worth with 2 saves and added to Cliftonville also hitting the post we won 3-1 on penalties. Dennehy, Turner and Gartland all successful from the spot  and it seems like the penalty hodoo has been lifted!
Again it was a matter of limping over the line rather than sprinting over it and we will need to do an awful lot better in the Semi-Final against Derry City, who overcame Irish League champions Linfield in their quarter final, if we have aspirations of retaining our All-Ireland title from last season.
Keep on Hooping!

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