De Courcey Albion crashed out of the Saxone Cup on penalties in the first round for the 2nd successive year. A bright start from Grangevale saw Albion under the cosh for spells and after 6 minutes saw themselves a goal down after a well worked counter attack from the visitors. Dan Galvin hobbled off on 21′ with a back injury seeing Conan Dillon replace him & making his first Albion appearance in 16 months. It wasn’t until 10 minutes before half time that Albion started to press forcing saves from the Grangevale keeper and Tim Harrington striking the crossbar. On 38′ their pressing paid off when they forced a corner. An excellent delivery from Jamie Daly found Tim Harringtons head who blasted a header right past the keeper to make it 1-1 at half time.

Albion kept their tempo up for the 2nd half with Darren Daly making some excellent interventions and also some excellent bursts down the flank offering JP Hayes some help. Their fast ball tempo paid off again as Tim Harrington played a lovely lob ball down the right which found JP Hayes, Hayes crossed the ball and perfectly found Rob Daly who was on hand for his 6th of the campaign. Albion kept pressing looking for a 3rd, creating an abundance of chances with Rob Daly and Tim Harrington both having a handfull of chances each to see out the game. It was becoming obvious that it wasn’t Albions day as the game moved on and they couldn’t find the finishing touch. 2-2 at full time after Grangevale had equalised from a scrappy corner with 8 minutes remaining.

Extra time was much the same with Albion pressing and Grangevale playing to their strengths on the counter attack. The game went to penalties and Grangevale won out 5-3 with, what has to be said, 5 excellently taken penalties.

Team: Mike Walsh, Darren Daly, James O’Driscoll, Colm O’Donovan, Declan Murray, JP Hayes, Jamie Daly (John Duggan 70′), Dan Galvin (Conan Dillon 21′), Rob Daly, Tim Harrington.

Subs: Martin Ryan, Aaron O’Sullivan, Dan Coleman, Jody McNamara.