Albion pulled off one of their best victories to date yesterday beating Premier A outfit, Glenvale, in a 2-1 thriller at Ballinadee to progress to the 2nd Round of the AOH Cup. Both teams started with high intensity crafting some lovely passing, Glenvale opting for ball through the centre while Albion opted for the flanks. Tim Harrington was unlucky not to break the deadlock as was Jamie Daly, though the Glenvale defender did just about enough to put Daly off for his header in front of goal. Albion broke the deadlock on 31′ when Troy Dillon laid the ball off for Tim who shot on goal, the keeper was only able to parry it and JP Hayes was there for the re-bound to make it 1-0 going into half time.
The 2nd half was, as expected, very fast paced with alot of attacking from both teams. Glenvale were, however, struggling to break down Albions back 4 who were doing a great job reducing the amount of chances the away team created. The game turned sour on 67′ when Ger O’Connell was booked after winning a ball cleanly and the Glenvale centre mid kicked out. The ref, strangely, awarding Glenvale a free kick. Just 6 minutes later Albion were down to 10 men. James O’Driscoll, already on a yellow from the first half, clipped their winger outside the box. Though what looked very much like an unintentional foul, O’Driscoll was handed his marching orders. The ref then decided that the foul was inside the box and awarded Glenvale a penalty which they converted. Albion might have been expected to defend the 1-1 scoreline and take it to extra time, but they did the complete opposite. Albion went on the attack time and time again, JP Hayes, Tim Harrington, Jamie Daly & Troy Dillon all unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. Dan Galvin & Ger O’Connell superbly breaking play and creating counter attacks. The game finished 1-1 and went to extra time.
Extra time was more of the same with Albion looking for the winner, not willing to take it to penalties. With 5mins left on the clock in the 2nd half of extra time JP Hayes switched play with a fantastic ball over the top to find Tim Harrington who took a lovely touch, out-ran the two oncoming defenders & scored with a low left footed shot into the bottom right. Albion saw out the remaining 5 mins to go through to the 2nd round.
Team: Walshy, Darren, James (OFF 63′), Colm, Deccy, Japs, Jamie, Ger, Dan Gal, Troy (Noel ’79), Tim.
Subs: Martin R, Dan Coleman.
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