Disappointed with opening draw

County Armagh Juniors .1

COUNTY Armagh’s Junior Milk Cup side were disappointed to have started their Milk Cup campaign with a draw on Monday.

The Armagh side totally dominated proceedings against Scottish outfit Queen of the South at Castlerock.

But a controversial penalty in the second half robbed Armagh what would have been a more than deserved win after Christian Stewart had powered the county side into the lead.

The writing was on the wall inside the first minute when Stewart broke down the right, cut inside and saw his effort tipped against the crossbar by Queen of the South ‘keeper Jim Atkinson.

Five minutes later Barney Doyle went close for Armagh, but he blasted over the top from a decent position after Matthew Lowe’s shot was deflected straight into his path.

Armagh’s impressive start to the game continued and they went close again on nine minutes when Rhys Marshall played a long ball from the back.

Cathal McKenna did well to get a shot on target but his effort was scrambled off the line to safety.

On 20 minutes Stewart had a half chance when he latched onto a long ball from goalkeeper Martin Marron but was unable to divert his shot on target from a difficult angle.

The base of the post then denied Armagh three minutes later when Matthew McMahon’s powerful drive from distance left the Queen of the South ‘keeper wanting.

The second half got off to a great start for Armagh and they took the lead three minutes after the restart when Stewart was on target at the second time of asking.

It could easily have been 2-0 eight minutes later when McKenna saw his second goal-bound effort cleared off the line.

The turning point in the match came 13 minutes from time when Queen of the South were awarded a penalty after the referee adjudged Jonathan Brown to have handled the ball.

Malcolm Burgess stepped up to hammer home the spot kick to level the game.

That penalty seemed to knock the stuffing out of Armagh however McKenna had another chance but blasted his effort straight at the ‘keeper.

Queen of the South will be thankful they managed to get out of jail but, from an Armagh perspective, it was a case of two points dropped.

Armagh: Martin Marron, Johnthan Brown, Rian Devlin, Barney Doyle, Miceal Hastewe, Matthew Lowe, Rhys Marshall, Cathal McKenna, Matthew McMahon, Criag McNorris, Christian Stewart.

Sub: Stuart Wells for Cathal McKenna (59 mins).

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