Ulidia 2-3 St Mary’s
St Mary’s travelled across the city to face basement side Ulidia FC at Ulidia Park, Ormeau Road on Saturday.
St Mary’s fastened several early chances to opening the scoring with Eoin McNicholl coming closest blazing a rising effort narrowly over the top in a lively opening spell.
St Mary’s marksman Eoin O’Reilly shot his side into the lead with a quick fire double at the mid-point of the opening period following good work by Patrick Ross and Cathal McGarrity.
It was all one way traffic at this point with Ross bundling an effort wide from a McNicholl corner while O’Reilly could only find the side netting from an acute angle following goalkeeping mishap.
O’Reilly however hadn’t long to wait to claim the match ball when bursting clear minutes before the break and although the connection was somewhat scuffed it deceived the dive of the unfortunate Ulidia custodian.
Ulidia threw themselves a lifeline in the opening minutes of the second period with a well worked finish to reduce the arrears as St Mary’s elected to make several changes with Conor O’Malley, Aidan Begley, Christopher Flannigan and Peter Morgan all getting stripped for action.
Both sides had chances to add to their tally with Ross saving bravely at the feet of the onrushing Ulidia striker while at the other end a terrific break from St Mary’s full back Oisin Donaghy went unrewarded as there were no takers as the ball flashed across the goal line.
Ulidia deservedly pulled another goal back with ten minutes remaining to make it a somewhat nervy finish for St Mary’s but their goal remained intact to secure another three points with their fifth league victory on the bounce.
