‘A’ Team advance in FAI Cup after penalty shoot out

Colemanstown ‘A’ 2; OLBC 2 (Colemanstown win 4-2 on penalties)

This was a humdinger in every aspect, football quality, excitement, resilience and management tactics. Colemanstown had most of the possession and had the ball in the net twice before half time through Conor Feeney and Barry Donnellan but the referee adjudged there was a foul on the keeper on both occassions. They laid a siege on the Boys Club goal at this stage but ended nil all at the break. OLBC were first to score in the second half with a fortuituous effort following a long ball from defense which fell nicely to the striker who lobbed the Colemanstown keeper from distance. Colemanstown responded immediately when player/manager Garry O Grady sent in a long ball from midfield which was nicely controlled by Ray Moran before releasing to Colin O Grady who slotted the ball safely under the keeper’s legs. By this stage Colemanstown were in control and in the middle of a shake out of their mid-season slumber when OLBC pounced again with a disputed goal resulting in Brian Costello receiving a red card for the post goal ‘lib’. Soon afterwards Ritchie Lally received a second yellow and 9 men Colemanstown drove forward in the last 7 minutes in serach of the all-important equaliser. Barry Donnellan who was just restored to the ‘A’ team , levelled matters on the 3rd attempt with 2 mins left when he slot home Damian Concannon’s rebounded effort after Colin O Grady first struck the post. Garry O Grady used every trick in the book to slow the game down in extra time and this worked well for them resulting in very little football action and so the game went to penalties. Ray Moran, Damian Concannon, Andy Concannon and Colin O Grady all converted their penalty kicks and so Colemanstown are ‘out of Galway’ and play Orchard, Dublin in the next round of this FAI Cup.