Moneyslane get over the ‘Hedge at Crystal Park

Slane came out of the blocks at a blistering pace and hemmed the opposition deep into their own half throwing in wave after wave of attack.

With just seven minutes on the clock Gareth Bingham fed the ball to the feet of Tommy Lockhart and he nipped in between two defenders and from an acute angle he lashed his shot into the roof of the net for the opening goal.

Bingham himself had a shot go the wrong side of the woodwork and then Jonny Whitten hit hard and low to the keeper’s left who spread himself down to push around the post.

On the half hour the visitors had settled into the game and had a shot deflected wide for a corner and it was swung into the penalty area and the big centre forward had a free header and should have equalised but he nodded it wide.

Two minutes later Hedge came closer when the striker hit a spectacular overhead kick from the edge of the eighteen yard box that clipped the top of the crossbar.

With five minutes to go to the break Slane doubled their lead when Whitten teed up Lockhart. He took one touch and fired in a shot from 25 yards out that beat the keeper to his right.

Dickson was up ended just outside the box. Whitten lined up the free kick and he curled it around the wall and it bounced back off the angle of the post.

Manager Neil McCullough made a few changes in the second half as he prepares his squad for the final at the end of the month and they found it hard to get into their stride they were in the first half.

The visitors had Nigel Fry working hard to make three good saves and Ryan Shilliday and Aaron Marks were working hard at the back with John Davenport and Robbie Weir.

The hard working Andy Moore was rested and his replacement Mark Anderson hit just wide minutes after he came on.

Chris Kerr made a break through the midfield and hit just wide and again Anderson had a half chance well saved.

The visitors were thrown a life line with five minutes to go when the referee awarded them a penalty to make it 2-1.

Overall this was a great second half with Slane settling for the points and going off the boil. Man of the match went to Andy Moore.