Ten man reserves bounce back for win

LURGAN Celtic Reserves notched up their first away win of the season on Saturday with a 3-2 victory over Coagh Swifts in an entertaining and event filled game.

Celtic began the game well and their fluent footballing was causing the Coagh defence all sorts of problems.

Kevin Campbell was finding himself a lot of space to run into on the left and provided some great opportunities for the experienced strike force of John Campbell and Dwyer Lavery.

This early pressure led to Coagh conceding a free kick 20 yards from goal. Lavery stepped up to take it and his low drive into the left hand bottom corner gave the keeper no chance.

Celtic could see that this style of football was showing some rewards and with both Gavin Gowdy and Gavin McMahon commanding midfield, both wingers were free to join in the attacks.

After only 20 minutes, the visitors were awarded another free kick, in an almost identical position as the first. Lavery again t ried his luck but the Coagh wall could only stop his shot with the use of a hand and so the referee had no choice but to award a penalty.

Gowdy placed the ball on the spot and calmly slotted it into the top right hand corner, sending the keeper in the opposite direction.

After the interval manager, John Mc Mahon, brought on subs Darren Fox and Paul McAnallen, however, Coagh seemed to have found a new momentum and with a strong wind to their backs, they began to use the long ball approach.

This tactic was hard to deal with and the Celtic defence found themselves under constant pressure, and but for the presence of both Dermot Kearney and Stephen Boyd, Coagh should have been on level terms.

Coagh continued to press forward and from a corner kick and a resulting goal mouth scramble, the referee decided that the ball had crossed the line and awarded Coagh a goal. This led to some strong protests from Celtic and as a result Stephen Boyd was dismissed.

This left a huge hole in Celtic's back four and so John Campbell was asked to drop back to try to steady things for the remaining 15 minutes. Coagh knew that Celtic were now vulnerable and they continued to press on.

The equaliser came only a few minutes later and Celtic began to question their resolve to hold on for the draw, however, the Lurgan Bhoys had made the long trip up to Coagh for an early kick off and they knew that if they didn't raise their game again it was going to be an even longer journey home.

With this in mind, they began to turn things around and it was they who were now looking for the win. Another free kick midway inside the Coagh half provided the chance for one last attack. Kevin Campbell waited until all the Celtic players were in the box before spotting the run of Lavery in behind the defence; he turned and drove his effort into the bottom corner to record a great win for the Lurgan Lads.