Brantwood inflict defeat on Olympic on opening day

Cookstown Olympic 1

COOKSTOWN Olympic opened their campaign last Saturday with a 5-1 defeat away to Brantwood in Belfast.

Brantwood took the lead on 15 minutes due to a defensive slip while Olympic gradually settled into the match and kept things tight for the rest of the first half.

Brantwood doubled their lead on 48 minutes with a well taken header from a free kick while Olympic nearly responded two minutes later when Ryan O’Neill put a ball in from the left and Kieran Doyle flicked it just over the bar.

Then on 60 minutes the first of two dubious penalty decisions gave Brantwood a 3-0 lead while three minutes later Olympic keeper Kevin Leonard pulled off a great save from a free kick.

Olympic nearly pulled one back on 65 minutes when the Brantwood keeper and defender denied Philly McGarvey from six yards out but Olympic did score on 68 minutes when Ryan O’Neill cracked a direct free kick to the net from 20 yards.

On 75 minutes an Olympic player was struck on the side by a shot and the ref decided it was a handball and awarded a penalty to give a fourth to Brantwood while on 85 minutes Olympic caused a goalmouth scramble that saw two goal mouth saves by the Brantwood stopper. A final flourish from Brantwood saw a poor offside decision let go for number 5.

Team: K Leonard, K Doyle, L Mitchell, S O’Hare, P McGarvey, M O’Neill, D McOscar, D Campbell, K Kelly, R Scullion, R McMenemy. Subs R O’Neill, J O’Neill and L Hoy.

Next Saturday 14th Olympic are at home at Beechway to Dunloy with a 2pm kick off, while Wednesday 18th will see the Firsts make the short journey to Desertmartin with a 7pm kick off while Saturday 21st will see an away trip to Cullybackey to face Clough Rangers and then a final mid week fixture away to Desertmartin on Wednesday 25th with a 6.45 kick off.

Cookstown Athletic Colts

The Colts had a friendly last Saturday away to Portadown BBOB and came away with a good 1-1 draw. The homesters took the chance to bring in a few players and an experimental Colts side took the lead on 48 minutes when Connor O’Reilly was well placed to slot the ball home from 15 yards out.

Various personnel and formation changes saw the Colts hold the lead until a penalty was awarded in the 79th minute but in the end a draw was probably a fair result.

Team: J O’Neill, M Meenan, E McSloy, L Mullan, K Murphy, C O’Hare, C O’Reilly, R Devlin, D Doherty, M O’Hare, B Carolan. Subs L McCloskey, M Wilson, A Cahoon.

A league fixture has now been arranged for this Saturday 14 August with the Colts travelling to play Desertmartin Swifts with a 2pm kick off.

Training

Training will take place on Thursday 12th at 8pm and then Thursday 19th August. There will be no Tuesday training until the midweek league matches have been completed. After that training will return to our traditional Tuesdays and Thursdays. All training sessions will take place on the grass training area at the Mid Ulster Sports Arena.

Fundraising

The Lucky 4 Lottery numbers for Saturday 7 August were 2, 6, 12 and 16, and there were no winners who matched all 4 numbers for the 600 jackpot. There were no winners who matched three numbers. The jackpot will now be 600 for next week’s draw and tickets are available from any committee or team member.