Penalty heartache for McDonagh and Dromara

Dromara Village 1

(after extra time, Grove win 7-6 on penalties)

DROMARA captain James McDonagh will be kicking himself after missing a vital penalty in the Border Cup final.

Village had come from behind to force extra time against Grove United on New Year’s Day and both sides fought a frenzied battle.

But it was Mark Green, signed only a few weeks ago from Ballymena United, who proved to be Grove’s hero, scoring their only goal and netting the decisive spot-kick as the north Belfast outfit registered their first ever triumph since moving into intermediate football.

It was a fine moment for Grove United. Just 12 months ago they were a club marooned to the foot of Division 1A – from basement battlers into Border Cup winners in his first full season in charge ranks as United boss Ricky Beggs’ best achievement in the dugout.

With the game relocated to Seaview following the big freeze over Christmas, both teams trained on Crusaders’ new synthetic surface through the week ahead of the final.

The game started off with both teams seemingly wanting to get used to the surface as no real chances happened in the opening exchanges. With about 15 minutes gone, Dromara started to see a lot more possession and could have gone in front through a half chance which fell to O’Connor but his shot went wide of the post.

Despite this good spell of play Dromara could not create any clear cut chances with a free kick from Douglas their only other real effort of note. The best chance of the half fell to Groves in central midfield when he burst through the Dromara defence but his shot did not trouble Hartley in the Dromara goal.

Feeney and O’Connor were not getting much change from the Grove defence who had set their stall out to close down early and frustrate the front pair. Half time saw both teams go in level.

The second half saw Grove come flying out of the traps and they caught Dromara cold with barely even five minutes of the second half played. Their striker broke in from the left hand side and from the edge of the box fired in a low shot which found the bottom corner of the net.

The next 20 minutes saw Grove keep everything very tight and the Dromara midfield were finding it hard to create chances for the forwards. Manager Phil McDonagh made a couple of changes bringing on O’Gorman and then himself and this seemed to help as Dromara were now getting a lot more possession in the final third.

Graham McDonagh fired a shot just wide from a corner and then O’Connor was unlucky when placed in the box but Grove somehow scrambled the ball clear. With the game now entering the final 10 minutes, the large Dromara support were in full voiced hoping for an equaliser. They thought it had arrived when a cross from the right was met by Lee Feeney but he could not keep his effort down.

The equaliser duly arrived in the dying minutes of the match when a superb cross from Douglas on the right fell to the head of the in rushing James McDonagh and he made no mistake, sending the Dromara support wild. The final whistle blew for full time shortly after this.

Extra time saw no real chances created and it came down to a penalty shoot out to decide the winners. The batch of penalties were all dispatched with relative ease but it was captain marvel James McDonagh who saw his effort saved and the Grove striker stepped up to score the winning penalty.

Never an easy way to lose a match, never mind a final, the Dromara players and management can be proud of their achievements in reaching the final and the standing ovation they got when they returned to the club house showed that the supporters felt the same way.

Both Dromara and Grove dispatched all of their first six penalties before Dromara player-manager McDonagh missed, leaving Green the task of gifting his new club their first ever piece of intermediate silverware - an opportunity the midfielder gleefully accepted to send the partisan Shore Road crowd into raptures.

Dromara: Hartley, Drake, Doherty, J McDonagh, McNamee, G McDonagh, Douglas, Johnston, O'Connor, Feeney, Carson (O'Gorman, 80 mins) Subs: Thompson, O'Gorman, P McDonagh.

Grove: Gibson, Briers, Beggs, Allen, Hamilton, Young, Simpson (Collins), Green, Finn, Bright, Dickson (McKinley, 45 mins) Subs: Collins, McKinley, Calder.