FOOTBALL: Good win for Reserves but Colts suffer heavy defeat

The Reserves grabbed a last gasp win over Donegal Celtic, but the Colts were hammered 6-1 by Loughgall at Windyhall.

Drew Coyles reserve side looked to be in complete control in west Belfast thanks to Sam Boylan's second half strike.

The hosts though, who had been reduced to 10 men midway through the second period, levelled things up with a minute to go.

Garrett Quinn though grabbed all three points for the Bannsiders with a coolly taken penalty a minute later much to coach Paul Gaston's delight.

"It was a very deserved win for us," said Gaston.

"We went in front and were in complete control, but once they had a man sent off we stopped playing.

"We got caught out for their goal which looked offside, and we started to think here we go again.

"But thankfully we went straight up the pitch and scored the winner after some good work by McIvor. Fair play to Garrett he kept his nerve and slotted the penalty home.

"There were some good performances especially from our two centre halves - Chris Rodgers and Paul Milligan.

"We also had a few younger players who showed up well including Danny Austin and Scott Hamilton."

The Reserves entertain Portadown at The Showgrounds on Friday night and Gaston is hoping to build on this win.

"It's a learning process for the lads but I feel we are making progress. Bar the games against Linfield and Crusaders we've given a good account of ourselves.

"I've told the lads if they keep performing then they'll get selected and they certainly did themselves proud against a very physical DC side on Saturday."

It was a frustrating day for the Colts management team however.

After going up 1-0 against Loughgall in the opening 10 minutes the young Bannsiders crumbled and ended up going down 6-1.

"We started off really brightly," coach Mark Crawford told Times Sport.

"David Healy put us one up and he should have added a second after good work by Douglas. But unfortunately that was as good as it got for us.

"We simply didn't perform after that. We made a few changes at 3-1 but in our efforts to chase the game we got caught out at the back.

"It's very disappointing as we know the lads are much better than this.

"We address the issues in training this week, but we told the guys to learn from this.

"We go to Institute on Saturday and we will be looking to bounce back."