Swifts suffer Shield defeat to Goodyear

RATHFRILAND Swifts were edged out of the Mid Ulster Shield on Saturday with a 2–1 away defeat to Goodyear.

The visitors were on a run of great results but things were interrupted by a physical Goodyear side with two good central defenders and an even better goalkeeper.

Rathfriland started quite well and were unfortunate not to take the lead when Chris Frazer agonisingly missed a header and the same player also clipped the post with a free kick.

The home side were up for it and won a lot of ball in the middle third of the field which they then used to pressurise the Swifts particularly with a string of corner kicks.

The number nine brought a real good low save out of Anthony Cunningham while a claim for hand ball on the line was waved away by the referee.

On the half hour a high ball into the air was not cleared by the visitors and the loose ball was scooped into the net to make it 1–0. There were little other opportunities for both sides before half time and the scoreline at the interval remained 1–0.

In the second half Rathfriland picked things up somewhat but still were not able to create many chances until the latter stages of the game. The home side’s number five tidied up a lot at the back with the big goalkeeper a contender for man of the match.

With the game at 1–0 Rathfriland were always in with a chance of pulling the game back but unfortunately the home side scored a second with a fortuitous deflection allowing their attack to continue to score with a low shot.

David Hollingsworth then pulled one back with a great drive forward and shot from 20 yards which buried itself in the corner of the net to make it 2–1.

With 10 minutes remaining Rathfriland peppered the Goodyear goal with a number of efforts – Kyle Heslip had a long range shot saved as did Keith Megaw. Heslip just missed a touch on the ball for another while a header from the same player was fantastically saved by the big keeper.

Joe Toal had a shot blocked as well while the last kick of the game was a high shot by Alan Murray which was collected again by the `keeper.

Overall Rathfriland were not firing on all cylinders in this game and did not really start playing until the latter stages of the game. The second goal was the killer although the visitors went agonisingly close to taking the game to extra time.

TEAM: Anthony Cunningham, Ryan Monaghan, Gavin Duffy, William Morrison, Alan Murray, David Gilmore, Simon Groves, Keith Megaw, Kyle Heslip, Chris Frazer, Philip Johnston.

Subs: Joe Toal, David Hollingsworth, Lee McDowell.