Football: Cookstown Olympic denied by late goal

Woodlands 2-2 Cookstown OlympicCookstown Olympic travelled to Carrickfergus last Saturday to play Woodlands in the league and took a point for the game, but it could have been all three.
Cookstown Olympic's Matty Hughes gets a shot off on goalCookstown Olympic's Matty Hughes gets a shot off on goal
Cookstown Olympic's Matty Hughes gets a shot off on goal

On six minutes Olympic broke with Mark Meenan finding Matty Hughes and his cross to the back post saw a Kevin Kelly shot saved.

The home team gradually found their feet and went one up after 21 minutes. But five minutes later Olympic leveled when a Mark Meenan throw in was flicked on by Liam Mullan to Ned Johnston.

Johnston turned and shot to the net from eight yards out.

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Olympic pressure lead to their second goal after 34 minutes as Darren McCabe cleared the ball to Ned Johnston and he held possession to lay it back to Matty Hughes and he placed this shot past the Woodlands keeper.

This sparked Woodlands pressure and Olympic keeper Jamie O’Neill pulled off a great save on 37 minutes and Matty Hughes headed a ball off the line after 42 minutes.

The start of the second half again saw Olympic under pressure with another fine save from Jamie O’Neill after 50 minutes but Olympic weathered this and after 60 minutes Ryan Devlin got Kevin Kelly away on the right of the box and after nut megging the defender his shot came off the crossbar.

Two minutes later and Woodlands missed from 8 yards out on 65 minutes Kevin Kelly broke clear again and tried to round the keeper who pushed him wide then blocked his shot which led to a goalmouth scramble that Olympic failed to convert.

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On 77 minutes Ryan Devlin put Matty Hughes one-on-one with the keeper but his chip went wide while on 80 minutes Ryan Devlin intercepted a clearance on the right but his shot finished in the side netting.

Five minutes later and Tiarnan Brennan put Liam Mullan clear and he beat the Woodlands keeper to the ball and slipped it under him into the net and then the referee decided to blow for an offside.

With the last kick of the match Woodlands leveled from a free kick to deny Olympic all three points.

The ball for this match was kindly sponsored by local Cookstown printing company Print Xpress.

Team: J O’Neill, L Mullan, D McCabe, M Meenan, R Mullan, R Devlin, T Brennan, M Hughes, O Maguire, K Kelly and N Johnston. Subs: C O’Reilly and D Maguire.

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