Cookstown Olympic lose out in unfortunate circumstances

Cookstown RBL's James McPartland is beaten to the ball by a Cookstown Olympic defender during Saturday's derby clash played at Beechway.INMM0816-344

Olympic found themselves one down after two minutes as a speculative shot bounced awkwardly in front of ‘keeper Jamie O’Neill and into the net.

Both teams settled down into a midfield contest until 30 minutes when Donovan McGuckin put Michael Meenan through one-on-one but his shot was deflected wide.

In the second half Olympic started putting on the pressure and from a corner after 48 minutes the ball fell to Liam Mullan, eight yards out, but his shot was cleared off the line. Five minutes later and Oisin Maguire ran on to a high ball saw the keeper coming and headed it to goal but the ball came off the underside of the bar with the defender clearing.

Then, on 70 minutes, one of Antrim’s rare forays into Olympic space, Donovan McGuckin was stewarding the ball to the bye line when he and the forward tumbled. Both tried to get up with the Olympic man shielding the ball, but the official saw a foul and a penalty which Antrim duly scored.

Olympic still kept pushing and on 82 minutes James McGahan was fouled in the penalty area but he hit the post with the penalty, while with two minutes left Paddy Hughes broke clear on the right and crossed for the onrushing Oisin Maguire to hit first time from eight yards but the Antrim keeper pulled off an incredible save.

Olympic: J. O’Neill, D. McGuckin, L. Mullan, B. Potter, Mark Meenan, N. Doyle, T. Brennan, O. Maguire, R. O’Neill, Michael Meenan and James McGahan. Sub: P. Hughes.

This Saturday Olympic will away in the league against Woodlands with a 2pm kick off in Carrickfergus.

Training will continue at 8pm on Thursdays on the synthetic pitch at MUSA.

The Lucky 4 Lottery numbers for Saturday 27th February were 1, 3, 12 and 19. There were no winners who matched four numbers for the £575 jackpot. There were no winners of the £30 prize for 3 numbers. The jackpot will be £575 for next week’s draw and tickets are available from any committee or team member.

The club are running a Last Man Standing competition which started on Saturday 6th February.