United Thirds exit Cavan Cup after penalty shoot-out

Ballymena started the game well and after five minutes Aaran Weir played a through ball to Mathew Shevlin who finished it well slipping it past the keeper to put the Sky Blues in front.

The game turned into an end to end contest with Ballymena having the better chances but failing to put them away.

Just before the half time break it was Dungannon who scored with a well taken shot from the edge of the box.

Second half was a nip and tuck affair but again Ballymena had the majority of the better chances.

Mathew Shevlin got pulled down in the box but unfortunately the Dungannon keeper guessed the right way and saved the resulting penalty.

With the game all square the match then went into extra time and in the first period of extra time, Dungannon went ahead.

It was a good finish inside the box but credit to this young United side, who have shown character in abundance this season they got back in the game.

Substitute Micheal Watson went a mazy run with three minutes of time left and placed a low strike to the bottom left hand corner to take the game to penalties.

The first four penalties from both sides really were a master class in penalty taking but it just wasn’t enough as the dungannon keeper pulled off a good save and dungannon scored the resultant penalty to put them into the quarter finals.

The players showed that they are a credit to the club and themselves after the performance today against a side with quite a number of reserve players down.

The team quickly get the chance to right the result with an away game versus Dungannon in the league next Saturday.

Team: Rowe; McCartney; Logan; Johnston; Agnew; Douglas; McNeill; Bonnes (60); Weir; Shevlin (65); Nixon.

Subs: Woods (65) Watson (60).