As they say, it was so near yet so far. Bangor took Cliftonville all the way to spot-kicks in the County Antrim Shield first round after a goalless draw in regulation, with the Reds prevailing in sudden death to secure their progression to the quarter-finals.
It was a gallant effort from the hosts that did not go to waste, however. The investment of energy and the ability to go toe to toe with one of Northern Ireland’s top football teams speaks a lot of the quality within the collective group.
The weather was not smiling on the seaside. As the players warmed up, the heavens opened from the dark clouds circling above, picking their moment.
It is in these situations where the value of an all-terrain pitch can truly be seen. Despite the rain getting increasingly heavier, the players still trained in it and the wetter surface could have helped the ball zip about a bit better.
Lee Feeney made seven changes to the Bangor team that beat Dollingstown on Saturday – Reece Neale, David Hume, John Boyle and Ryley D’Sena reprised – including first outings from the start for Tom Mathieson and Aaron Harris as well as an awaited opening competitive senior bow for Ross Craig since he re-joined the club in the summer.
Sam Millar was also promoted from the Reserves to feature on the bench for this fixture.
Meanwhile, in the Cliftonville camp, Jamie McDonagh was the only player to keep his starting spot from their 1-2 win at Portadown in the Premiership.
Paddy McLaughlin switched 10 members in. There were debuts for deadline day signing from Coleraine Aaron Traynor as well as highly-rated duo Gerard Storey and Shea Kearney. He also had the long-standing pedigree of the likes of Colin Coates and Joe Gormley to account for in his lineup, while a who’s who of usual first-team starters made up the north Belfast side’s bench.
In the Solitude club’s post-match report, they described the first half as, “arguably the most uneventful 45 minutes of football in the Club’s history.” Among the vast array of archives that come with being a 143-year-old footballing institution, that’s quite the statement to make!
It is fair to say the looks at goal took a while to build up, though.
Throughout the first 20 minutes, there was little by way of goal-mouth action. It was largely settled possession traded between both teams, with a slick pitch allowing for flowing passing football along the ground.
It took until the 23rd minute for the closest resemblance to a chance to occur. Gormley, who positioned himself on David Hume’s shoulder, dropped from the frontline to take it short.
He swivelled to switch and set Sean Moore behind from the left with D’Sena chasing, and the young Australian recovered just in time to out-muscle the Reds academy graduate – who made his first-team debut against the Seasiders in his side’s 4-2 quarter-final win at Solitude in this competition last year – and clear the danger, where otherwise he would have been one-on-one with goalkeeper Marc Orbinson.
Tactically, switches of play were a key facet of Cliftonville’s gameplan. That chance was one example of play going from right to left.
However, most of the time they were directed the other way, from left to right. In the first half-hour, McDonagh was the main outlet for these.
It set up the duel of the half. McDonagh – who registered a staggering tally of 27 assists in 44 matches last term – kept a wide-right berth, seeking to catch Neale out with a floating style of movement. It was testament to the Ballynahinch ace’s concentration and defensive prowess that his ex-Glentoran counterpart had little joy trying to cut in or supply crosses.
The closest Bangor came to scoring was when Karl Devine, making his first senior appearance since the 2-0 Irish Cup first round win over Queen’s University in mid-August, carried the ball through the centre and threaded one behind on 37 minutes.
Jordan Hughes was to his left and braced a run to receive this, but it just trickled beyond his reach and out for a goal kick. He would have had time to set a shot had he got it in his grasp.
The half time whistle of established Irish League referee Raymond Crangle peeped after one minute of additional time.
It felt like there was another level both teams could go in the second half, both tempo-wise and in chance-creation.
You could sense the Reds had been told this by their manager at the interval. Their speed in playing out from the back heightened from the outset, and a much more exciting and “eventful” second stanza was the result.
Orbinson was called firstly on 54 minutes to smother from a loose ball that Moore looked within a whisker of connecting to, while around 120 seconds later a rare mix-up in the Bangor defence fed in the ever-instinctive Gormley which the goalkeeper had to react well to.
The teams traded set-piece chances just before the hour. A direct right-footed free kick from the best part of 30 yards by McDonagh swerved and dipped delectably, but was narrowly over as he eyed the top left corner. At the other end, Neale’s curling 25-yarder was wide of Talley’s left-hand post and concerned the teenage Brighton and Hove Albion loanee enough for him just to change his stance for if a Bangor player in the box pursued it.
McLaughlin decided on 63 minutes to put some of his big guns on. A triple-sub saw Storey, Kearney and McDonagh replaced by early-season top scorer Ryan Curran, a player on a mean streak against the Yellows in Ronan Hale and authoritative midfielder Ronan Doherty. Feeney himself replaced Devine and Harris with Dylan O’Kane and CJ Sullivan just a few minutes later.
It offered the visitors a new dimension. Instead of McDonagh having to hug the touchline, there was more rotation.
Hale, Gormley and Curran could all rotate and interchange who was to the centre and who drifted right. They kept with their left-to-right switches, where Doherty was an architect alongside Coates and starting captain on the night Odhrán Casey. Neale and Hume, who had done sterling work up to then and were winning their duels, had to continue to be on top of their game to counter this enhanced threat.
The younger of the Hale brothers – Rory wasn’t named to the Cliftonville matchday 18 last night, likely with a view to their crunch clash with Glentoran at Solitude on Friday – nearly added to his rapsheet of goals against Bangor. Orbinson delivered a stunning save to deny him on 69 minutes.
On the 77th minute, Gormley found a gap between the centre backs as a right-sided cut-back was sent across the face of goal, but the Ardoyne hero was unable to get enough of a connection to poke it into either corner. It ended just to the wrong side of the post, while on 79 minutes, a carbon copy of that chance – albeit this time with the ball supplied from the left – fell Moore’s way with the same end result.
Two minutes later, Orbinson prevented Coates from breaking the deadlock, with the centre back a consistently active presence in set-piece situations. Buoyed on by their travelling support by the Clandeboye Road end where they were peppering shots, the Reds were piling on the pressure. By now they had usual captain Chris Curran on the pitch – McLaughlin had replaced Traynor, a player with his first appearance for the club now under his belt, for a stalwart with over 300.
But for all the Premiership side applied – a team who could end the upcoming matchday top of the league if they beat the Glens no less – it was the hosts who ended on the front foot.
You soak it all in and then you have a late surge. You’d call that a ‘smash and grab’ usually?
Maybe here it would’ve have been a little unfair. The defence had held firm and the home side still played some nice sequential play to get up the pitch where they could. At the same time however, the visitors had created enough in a short space of time to feel they should have been leading going into the last 10 minutes.
In an 87th-minute breakaway, the ball was cut across from left to right along the ground. Lying in wait was Ally Ferguson, who received and released a right-footed shot from just outside the penalty area.
His rising effort was not far over the top right, and he used the space well to turn and face. The only one of the back-five to be newly installed from the team that saw off the Dollybirds, he and Cliftonville loanee Seanna Foster will be in close competition for a spot in the right side of defence and with how he played yesterday, such competition can healthily spur both players on to new heights.
Then, in the second minute of second half added-time, Neale – who took all the set-pieces and took them to a high degree – sent an inswinging free kick from the right towards the back post that was cleared. Crangle whistled for the end of regulation shortly after with the score unaltered from start to finish. No extra time, straight to penalties.
Supporters home and away gathered behind the net facing Hawthorne Court for what is always an agonising episode. Cliftonville took first.
Hale, Ryan Curran, Gormley and Coates made no mistake in the Reds’ first four. Arthurs, Ferguson, Neale and O’Kane likewise converted for the Seasiders. It fell to Chris Curran to keep the perfect streak on the fifth take, but Orbinson used his legs to thrust the ball over the bar.
Hughes then with the chance to win it and create one hell of a stir, a giant-killing. Alas, some things just aren’t meant to be.
His effort was high of the crossbar, a little too much underneath the ball with Talley having already committed to the dive.
The first spot-kick of sudden death saw Luke Turner – the last of Cliftonville’s five subs after coming on for Jamie Robinson on 90 minutes – keep his cool to convert. Sullivan had to score to keep Bangor in it, but the ex-Glenavon Under-20 captain saw his low effort saved by Talley to the keeper’s bottom right. The visitors prevailed 5-4 on spot-kicks therefore.
A gutting end. However, dwelling on moments like these doesn’t serve you well going on.
There was a lot of heart on show, a lot of guile, and everyone of a Bangor persuasion can hold their heads high. From where the club was five years ago to being disappointed that they couldn’t see off a high-flying top-tier outfit is a pretty good place to be.
| Other results | County Antrim Shield (6/9/22) | ||
| Glentoran | 1 | 0 | Lisburn Distillery |
| Larne | 2 | 0 | Knockbreda |
| Dundela | 1* | 1 | Ballyclare Comrades |
| Crusaders | 0 | 1 | Linfield |
| Newington | 1 | 2 | Ballymena United |
| Harland and Wolff Welders | 0 | 1 | Carrick Rangers |
“What is it now, is it six clean sheets in a row?” said D’Sena in the post-match commotion.
It is indeed. 540 full minutes of regulation football without conceding a single goal. Orbinson was immense with some top-order saves, and the way the side collectively kept defensive resolve and created chances was full credit to how they are applying themselves.
That’s a record to be proud of, and one to try to preserve with a return to winning ways at Belfast Celtic in the Steel and Sons Cup this weekend. No doubt the players will be fired up with three more cup matches to come.
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