Lisburn Ladies book place in Division One Cup final

Some of the Senior squad in the new Uhlsport Kit.

Lisburn Ladies seniors travelled to Annagh United FC’s ground recently to face Portadown Ladies in the Divisional Cup Semi Final, with the winners facing either Cappagh Spurs or Larne Ladies.

The fantastic 3G surface was always going to guarantee a great game of passing football.

Lisburn started brightly and within only a few minutes of the game gone they had their first chance when Nadene beat the offside trap to race through one on one with the keeper, only for the keeper to pull off a good save.

Then at the other end Portadown had a great opportunity to put the home side in front, a cross from the right side was met by the striker who blazed the ball over from six yards out. Although the striker looked to be in an offside position but the ref let it go.

Lisburn started to use the size of the pitch to their advantage and their pace on either wing with Jenny and CJ started to cause the Portadown back four a lot of problems.

Lisburn continued to pile on the pressure but wasted some great opportunities from dead ball situations, Chloe delivering great crosses but players failed to meet any. Another chance went begging when a deep cross was met at the back post by CJ who cut inside but failed to hit the target.

It was CJ who got Lisburn off the mark on 32 minutes when she raced on to a ball and buried it into the bottom corner. It didn’t take long to make it 2-0 when CJ doubled the lead and add another goal to her game, once again she got in behind the defence and when she looked up to square the ball, miss kicked it and fooled the keeper and went past her.

The second half started off with Portadown attacking right from the kick off and almost getting an early goal with the Lisburn defence caught off guard.

With Portadown pushing forward looking for a goal, it was leaving spaces at the back for Lisburn counters, however, nothing was really developing.

It was Portadown who were becoming the better team and pulled a goal back only for the ref to disallow it for a foul on keeper Jessica.

Minutes later Portadown were awarded a penalty. Up stepped the penalty taker, however, Jessica pulled off a top save, diving to her left side keeping her clean sheet intact.

Portadown continued to push for an answer, but Lisburn continued to defend and keep solid. Playing two games in three days was starting to show on the girls as a few players started to go down with cramp. But Lisburn saw the game out and were the worthy winners booking a place in the final.