Strabane and Sion Swifts United hold out to clinch deserved victory
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Conor Carlin attempts to break through the home defence during Strabane and Sion Swifts United’s 4-3 win at Ardstraw in the Northern Ireland Intermediate League on Saturday. GF0409CC
Ardstraw 3. SSSU 4.
STRABANE and Sion Swifts United (SSSU) deservedly left Vaughan's Holm with the three Northern Ireland Intermediate League points on Saturday, after recording a 4-3 victory over Ardstraw.
With a strong wind at their backs in the first half, it took SSSU just 15 minutes to break the deadlock when Aaron Gillespie's corner kick flew straight into Andrew Gailey's net.
The visitors continued to press and they soon doubled their advantage when Kevin Gallagher exchanged passes with Niall Devine and Gillespie in midfield, before unleashing a 25 yard effort over Gailey's head.
The home side refused to give up, though, and they went close to pulling a goal back in the closing stages of the first half when David Allison, who collected an Andrew Baxter pass, was denied by Dean Arnold in the visitors' goal.
Ardstraw did reduce the deficit before the interval, however, when referee, Noel Crossan, awarded them a penalty kick after Nigel Boyd was felled in the area by Ryan Molloy. Gareth Watson made no mistake from 12 yards.
Clearly reinvigorated by their goal, Ardstraw made a bright start to the second half with Baxter and David Connor both being denied by Arnold from range, before Boyd cracked a shot off the frame of the goal.
The visitors responded in style, though, with Joe Breslin flashing an unstoppable drive from distance past Gailey to regain their two goal advantage, before Conor Carlin broke through to make it 4-1.
At that point, Ardstraw boss, Willie Scott, shuffled his pack and introduced Ian Hill, Mark Spratt and Kyle Mitchell. That injection of pace and fresh legs certainly had the desired effect, as the home side fought their way back into contention.
Baxter swapped passes with Kenny Williamson before slotting the ball into Arnold's bottom corner and minutes later he completed his brace after a neat piece of quick passing with Hill.
With a grandstand finish now on, Ardstraw went for, what at one stage looked, an unlikely equaliser, but despite forcing several corners the closest they came to levelling matters was through Hill, whose shot struck the woodwork.
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