SWIFTS' WINGS CLIPPED
BANBRIDGE Town stormed into the semi-final of the Mid-Ulster Cup last Tuesday night with a fantastic 1-0 win over Dungannon Swifts at Stangmore Park.
Mark Quinn rattled the ball in from close range to score the only goal of the game midway through the first half after Aaron Baker had made a blistering run down the left flank.
Town have now given themselves a fantastic opportunity to make the final of the competition. Michael Lamont's side avoided Loughgall and Armagh City in the semi-final draw and have instead been paired with Second Division side Annagh United.
Banbridge went into last Tuesday's game missing Ryan Evans which handed Timmy Grant the chance of a rare start. The other change to the side from the one that beat Dundela the previous Saturday was John Hooks coming in at left-back for Paul Evans who wasn't fit enough to play a full 90 minutes.
This was Hooks' final game for Banbridge as he has joined former Town midfielder Shane McGeown at Armagh City.
plenty
Dungannon enjoyed plenty of possession throughout the first half but failed to turn that into goalmouth chances.
Instead most of the goalmouth action was reserved for the Dungannon goal with Baker causing the home defence all sorts of problems.
Baker frightened the life out of the Swifts' defence with his surging runs down the left wing, time and time again creating openings for Town frontmen Damian McParland and Dave Irwin.
Town's goal came from one of these runs when Baker skipped past the right-back and crossed for Quinn to stab home from close range.
From another run down the left Baker squared the ball for Irwin, who blazed a shot just over the Swifts' crossbar. Baker thought he had doubled Town's lead when he burst through the Swifts' defence and rolled the ball under the advancing keeper only to see it desperately hacked off the goal-line.
In the second half Dungannon began to exert more and more pressure, as you would expect from a senior side.
However, when Town's defences were breeched the Swifts' strikers met, in William McFrederick, a goalkeeper who was having the game of his life.
In the final 20 minutes Dungannon laid seige to the Town goal but anything they could throw at McFrederick was capably dealt with by the former Fulham man.
McFrederick was Town's man of the match but he was pushed all the way by Baker. Lamont will be relieved he didn't lose either player in the transfer window but he will surely face a tough challenge to hold onto the pair come the summer when the Premier League sides will come calling.
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Weather for Dromore
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
