Sporting Cromac FC 1-3 St Mary’s FC
St Mary’s travelled across the city to face old foes Sporting Cromac FC at Strangford on Saturday morning, determined to put their recent run of poor results against the South Belfast side to bed.
Both teams started brightly, with Trevor McCormick blocking bravely in the opening minutes to keep the St Mary’s goal intact while at the other end an Aidan Begley through ball just eluded the St Mary’s strike-force.
St Marys’ Cathal McGarrity was in the thick of the action and his perfectly weighted pass to O’Reilly looked to have sprung the off-side trap but O’Reilly was squeezed out just as he lined up to shoot.
Full-back Oisin Donaghy then picked up on a poor clearance from the Sporting netminder but could only watch agonisingly as the ball whistled inches wide of the upright as the game ended scoreless at the break.
The St Mary’s management asked for more of the same at the break urging their team to continue to get the ball forward quickly but their charges started the second period sluggishly and fell behind in the opening minutes. Stand-in goalie Patrick Ross made a flying save but the breaking ball was hammered home to put the Markets men ahead.
In the early part of the season, the St Marys’ heads would have dropped at this point and they probably would have found themselves staring defeat in the face but they showed the grit and determination to haul themselves level minutes later through Jack Parke following good work by Oran McNaugton and Cathal McGarrity.
The busy Parke then had a big hand in the next goal on forty minutes when his pinpoint pass released O’Reilly and his finish was precise to register his twentieth goal of the campaign.
St Mary’s dropped slightly deeper and invited Cromac to take the game to them but with skipper Oliver Breen and Conor O’Malley watertight at the back and Oran McNaughton taking a tight grip of the midfield, Cromac struggled at this point to fasten much in the way of clear cut chances.
Some of the interplay between the St Mary’s forward players McNicholl, McGarrity, Flannigan O’Reilly and Parke was cutting Cromac open on the break and from one such move McNicholl raced clear before being hauled down on the edge of the area. While the offender saw red, McNicholl dusted himself down before nonchalantly curling the resultant free kick into the bottom corner of the net to seal the three points.
Man of the Match: Oran McNaughton (St Mary’s)
