Football: Cookstown Youth take point from Ballinamallard

Cookstown Youth Under 14 player Shane Murphy in action against Larne FC at MUSA last weekend.

In the opening minutes striker Eoghan Hawe outsprinted the Mallard defence only to be thwarted by the keeper.

A knock down from Gallagher from another corner was plundered by Thomas Mackle at the back post on 33 minutes.

Cookstown when close through Thomas Mackle and Hawe before Ballinamallard started to take control.

They created several good chances with keeper Morgan Moore pulling off a great save and intercepting two great through balls.

On 52 minutes the Mallard central midfielder danced through a melee of tackles to earn the Fermanagh men the equaliser.

Tiernan Mackle and Jake Fraser both went close again before the Mallard’s spurned a great chance right at the end to the relief of the Cookstown management.

Cookstown Colts welcomed Cookstown Youth to MUSA, last Friday night in the MUYL Cup quarter finals. It wasn’t long though, before the Colts found themselves in front from a fantastic strike from Armstrong.

Growing in confidence the Colts went on to have a few near misses and ultimately paid the price as Cookstown Youth showed their class, when Forbes sneaked a goal back to level it up. Cookstown Youth started the second half brighter and inevitably their second goal came early slotted home by O’Donnell.

Not to be undone the Colts picked themselves up again, pushed forward and Armstrong was there to beat the keeper.

With the game now level, both sides went for the winner and Forbes thought he may have done enough to win when he slotted his second goal of the game, to again give the Youth the lead.

However, this was yet again cancelled out by the Colts, when Ferguson showed his strength and pace to win the ball, round the keeper and tap in the equalizer to force extra-time.

Had it been a league game, both teams would’ve happily walked away with a point but there had to be a winner.

This came when Donnelly ran onto a perfectly weighted pass from Sh O’Hare, hitting the ball first time into the top left hand corner, sending Cookstown Youth through.

Cookstown Youth: Monaghan, Donaghy, Donnelly, Se O’Hare, C Devlin, Anderson, Hamilton, Farley, O’Donnell, Forbes and Sh O’Hare.

Colts: Purvis, Murphy, Jeffers, Ruddell, O’Neill, Graham, Young, McCann, McCallion, Larmour, Ferguson and Armstrong.