Penalty miss denies AFC from a vital win

Ballymacash Rangers 3

AFC hosted Ballymacash Rangers in a game which can only be described as one of two halves.

The visitors took the lead after two minutes when sloppy defending left the smallest man on the pitch to head the ball home from a corner unchallenged.

AFC got a free kick on the right side of midfield and Ryan McDowell whipped in a sublime pass into the box for Richie Gartland to blast the ball home with a cracking mid-air volley.

Again AFC looked shaky at the back when  the Rangers player skipped past two defenders without being tackled  to slot the ball home.

AFC again came back at the visitors again with a goal in virtually the same fashion as the first one. This time Mark Myles swung in a great ball for Sean McKay and his cool finish made it 2-2.

McCourt and Gartland were putting in a great shift in the middle of the park and Carl Walker was trying to get the rest of the defence to up their games but again AFC’s backline was caught sleeping and a long ball over the top saw the Rangers forward run onto it and slot home.

At the half managers Blackburn and McBride told the squad that they needed to get physical with their opponents.

And about two minutes into the second half saw the evergreen Carl Walker being substituted after being on the receiving end of a two footed tackle.

This saw a change in the AFC side and with the introduction of Warren Buchannan AFC started to attack more. Sean McKay weaved a bit of magic in the box and was brought down but no penalty was given. Mark Rooney had a great effort saved.

Then in the last few minutes Ryan McDowell drifted in side at shot from about 18 yards and his shot went into the bottom corner.

Best for AFC were Gartland, McCourt and Walker.