FOOTBALL: Mossley and Barn United exit Intermediate Cup

Manager Garry Campbell agreed, “Foundry are a good side; they’re fit, move the ball well and you can see why they’re top of the Premier. But it shows the level we’re at, when Albert Foundry just about beat us, after extra time. That should serve us in good stead for 15 games we’ve left in the league.

“Against better quality opposition, you have to work harder and we had some boys still a bit battered and bruised from the Dergview game. Even if we weren’t the better team on the day, we could have won it: Lee Graham hit one just past the post at 2-1. Had that gone in, we would have been home in a boat, but instead they go down the field and get a soft penalty, when Jimmy McKinney just couldn’t get out of the way. Never an intentional hand ball -but for that, I couldn’t see them coming back!”

Mossley cancelled out Foundry’s interval advantage with goals from Ricky Moore and Graham. That penalty forced the tie into extra time, where Foundry notched what turned out to be the winner inside the opening minute of the first period.

Also out go Barn, beaten by another table topper, Championship 1 leaders Ards, one of Tommy Kincaid’s old clubs.

While Ards had made ten changes from the side beaten in the League Cup Final, they certainly meant business, racing into a four goal lead after just 31 minutes. As Kincaid conceded, “We were so poor in the first half; I feared it was going to get embarrassing. We gave them too much respect, and room – but changed things round at half time, going three up front. We got two back and missed two good chances to make it four-each. By then, they were really rattled and it was a different ball game!”

Matt McDonald and Tayler Thomson gave Barn hope which could have escalated into conviction had McDonald not lost out to the keeper in a one on one and Jackson Griffith not hoisted one over from a few yards out.

Instead, Ards’ fifth extinguished the flames of the Barn revival, before adding a sixth right at the death.