Football: Cookstown Olympic held by 10 man Whiteabbey

Olympic paid for a sluggish start and went one down after 12 minutes and then failed to lift their game and found themselves two down after 22 minutes.

Eventually stringing some passes together Olympic had their first chance after 29 minutes when Connor O’Reilly put Ned Johnston through but the Whiteabbey keeper flicked his shot over the bar.

Tony Keenan then got Ned Johnston through one-on-one with the keeper after 36 minutes and he flicked it over the keeper’s head only to be flattened by a neck high challenge that saw an Olympic penalty and the keeper sent off.

Kevin Kelly duly sent the stand-in keeper the wrong way. With only two minutes of the half remaining Darren McCabe powered in a 30 yard free kick to the back post and Mark Meenan planted a bullet header into the net for two all.

The second half against 10 men was slow to start but Olympic had a quick break after 55 minutes with Tony Keenan finding Kevin Kelly who flicked it to Ned Johnston with his first time shot beating the keeper but not the post.

Olympic again broke on 65 minutes when Oisin Maguire broke down a Whiteabbey attack and strode up the field to find Matty Hughes who beat two defenders but then saw the keeper pull off a great save.

On 70 minutes Whiteabbey reminded Olympic that the game could change as they hit the post with a header but Olympic had the last chance on 86 minutes when a goalmouth scramble that saw the ball cleared off the line.

Team: R Devlin, C O’Reilly, D McGuckin, M O’Hare, O Maguire, M Meenan, D McCabe, M Hughes, T Keenan, K Kelly and N Johnston. Subs: R Scullin, T Brennan and N Teixeira.