Match Report 20/11/21 Donegal Celtic 2 LDFC 6
Donegal Celtic v Lisburn Distillery (McCombs Travel Intermediate Cup 2nd round) – Saturday 20th November 2021
Lisburn Distillery made their first visit to Donegal Celtic Park since the 2017/2018 season on Saturday in the 2nd round of the Intermediate Cup.
The Whites were hoping to shake off the disappointment of Wednesday night’s Steel & Sons Cup semi-final and the oppositions recent form made for promising reading.
There were five changes from the Linfield Swifts game, Corey Pollock made his debut in goal and Timmy Clarke, Christian Irvine, Stephen Sullivan and Johnny McCaw started in place of Jonah Nicholl, Neil Dillon, Chris Getty, Lewis Higginson and Mikey Withers. Scott Brannigan also made a comeback from injury, starting the game on the bench.
The visitors started the game brightly and had the ball in the net in the 8th minute when a pass from midfield found Mick O’Hanlon out wide and the winger cut infield and slotted the ball into the bottom corner but the referee had blown his whistle for offside, the Whites player certainly looked level when the pass had been made to him.
Four minutes later and Caoelain Young had a good chance when a Sullivan pass found him in space on the right with only the ‘keeper, Darren Corry, to beat but disappointingly the striker hit his final effort straight at the stopper.
DC then had a couple of corners but thankfully these came to nothing and then in the 16th minute at the other end a right hand cross into the box was flicked on by McCaw and found O’Hanlon but this time the winger failed to get a shot off before being dispossessed by a defender.
The opening goal did eventually come for Johnny Clapham’s side in the 24th minute when a corner was taken short and eventually the ball made its way to Aaron Harris on the edge of the box, the skipper whipped a cross right onto the head of Irvine whose header gave Corry no chance.
The ball was in the net again three minutes later when Young got the ball around the DC keeper on the right hand side of the box but with the angle against him he opted to play the ball back to the supporting O’Hanlon who had the simple task of tapping into an open goal but much to the amazement of everyone in the ground the referee again blew for offside despite O’Hanlon having been behind the ball when the pass was made.
The tricky winger did eventually get his reward in the 37th minute when McCaw picked him out down the left and this time he sent a first time effort across goal and into the right hand corner of the net to double Distillery’s lead and finally get his goal.
The Whites were not done yet and 2-0 became 3-0 in the 43rd minute when a Sullivan header crashed against the bar and McCaw was brought down inside the box when he tried to control the rebound, the same player dusted himself down and scored his first goal since returning to the club from the penalty spot.
The first half ended with Whites fans hoping the side could kick on and add a few more goals to their tally after the interval.
Half-time: Donegal Celtic 0-3 Lisburn Distillery
It was an action packed opening 15 minutes to the second half; firstly, it took just three minutes for the Whites to extend their lead when Nick Napier split the defence with a fine pass through to Young who kept a calm head to score his eighth goal of the season.
