Crawford Cup win for Desertmartin

Desertmartin travelled to Ballymena last Saturday to take on Raceview in the 4th round of Crawford Cup, the third meeting of the clubs this season.

The Desert won the last two encounters but were well aware that this cup fixture was going to be a difficult one as Raceview had strengthed their team during the January window.

In the first 15 minutes it was all Raceview, pinning the Desert back but Davy Nelson, who had kept a clean sheets in the last three games, was in no mood to let that record slip.

After the initial onslaught, the Desert came back into the game.

Lee Smyth should have put them ahead in the 20th minute when he hurried his shot straight at the keeper.

With the scoreline blank at the interval, Desertmartin looked much the better side in the second half but they lost the impressive Chris Morrow to an injury sustained in a bad tackle.

This made way for Danny McIlhatton who linked up well with Mark Shiels to fraustrate the Raceview players.

With the Desert back four of Scott, Clarke, Ferson and Caulfield in command and Robin Patton’s pace through the middle, it looked like only a matter of time before they got the all-important goal.

Raceview hit the post before Patton latched onto a long ball rounded the keeper to put Desertmartin into the next round

Manager Gareth Pitts was very praiseworthy of his team’s performance, They gave 100% commitment and kept their disipline in the the face of harsh tackling which earned the opposition several yellow cards.

This Saturday Desertmartin have a local derby at Magherafelt Sky Blues, 2pm Spires Park.