At least until the New Year, we now know Bangor’s cup action is on the back-burner for a while. A trip to Inver Park was always going to see the Seasiders branded as underdogs, certainly in this day and age, but that is not to say that positives cannot be taken out of what is the yellow and blue pride’s heaviest reversal of the calendar year to date.
Larne, who have won each of the last three editions of the County Antrim Shield and who have not lost in the competition post-Covid, continued their path to a tournament four-peat with a three-goal victory; the damage done by the first period’s conclusion. But a spirited second-half display inspires confidence that, akin to the effort against Coleraine where Bangor pushed the Bannsiders to extra-time, can offer wind in the sails and provide momentum going into league assignments to come – starting with this Sunday.
Three first-half goals spell end for Bangor’s Shield crusade for another term
Conditions were dry upon leaving Bangor. But you would not have guessed that based on the downpour that greeted travelling supporters by the harbour.
A wet night for the Seasiders’ first trip to a much-changed Inver Park in eight years – before takeover talk, Irish League titles, successive relegations and the fanfare that has happened in between.
Eight years on, this visit was a bit more in hope.
Lee Feeney saw fit to rotate for this encounter against the four-peat-chasing County Antrim Shield holders – some by choice, some enforced.
Starting line-up:
Bangor’s line-up from Saturday featured six changes in all, with Adam Neale and Scott McArthur deployed as a front pairing while Dylan O’Kane slotted into the midfield. Tom Mathieson was in an unorthodox left wing-back position, David Hume was reintroduced to the defence and Marc Orbinson started in goal.
Teenage defenders Sean Brown and Ben Walker, both ineligible to face their parent club, naturally dropped out of the side, as did the rested Ben Cushnie.
The former duo being unavailable cued quite the reshuffle in defence; attacking midfielder Tom Mathieson, for likely the first time in his career, slotted in at left wing-back for Saturday goal hero Walker, while David Hume, who’d missed each of the last two matchdays, returned straight into the starting line-up in Brown’s place as the right-sided centre-back.
Behind that somewhat makeshift spine of five, Marc Orbinson got a run-out between the sticks as usual first-choice James Taylor dropped to the bench, while captain Lewis Harrison and top scorer Ben Arthurs joined the veteran stopper among the reservists with Dylan O’Kane and Adam Neale respectively receiving starting roles. Scott McArthur, although not a like-for-like switch for Cushnie, joined Neale to form the front pair.
Moreover, three of David Downes’ Reserves were promoted to the substitutes panel; attack-minded left-back Sam Millar, fast-paced winger Kristian Trainor and industrious midfielder Ethan Scott. Michael Halliday’s wisdom and nous were well-served as he completed the bench.
Substitutes:
The options in reserve proved to be an eclectic mix, with three first-team regulars, three Academy talents and the evergreen Michael Halliday to join them. If Sam Millar or Kristian Trainor came on, they would have made their second and third first-team appearances respectively, while Ethan Scott was in line for a debut.
Meanwhile, for a Larne team that had made nine changes from the weekend, their backup options weren’t much weaker.
Merely Aaron Donnelly and Tomás Cosgrove kept their places from the Inver Reds’ draw with Crusaders the previous Friday, but their strength in depth was illustrated as they could call on Craig Farquhar, Shea Gordon, Scott Allan, Sean Graham, Daniel Kearns and Joe Thomson.
That’s worth repeating – a Larne team with nine changes. Tiernan Lynch really was spoilt for choice approach-wise.
Would continuity be maintained with such levels of alteration? We found out in no time, as McArthur kicked play off for Bangor as their hosts kicked into gear.
The first 10 minutes were like a bubbling cauldron; Larne didn’t struggle to retain possession and, at that 10th-minute juncture, O’Kane’s alert sliding intervention diverted a slick piece of link-up away for a corner kick right when red and white bodies were preparing to pile on Orbinson.
The dead ball did not amount to much, but three minutes later, a cross from the inside-left channel almost brought about the hosts’ opener. Hands on head, though, for Ilijah Paul, and sighs of relief from the Bangor following in the stand; he flicked his header off the inside of the right post, and Orbinson’s cat-like reactions as the ball spun around behind him closed the angle for Paul’s rebound.
The American’s effort ended up in the McKay Stand behind Orbinson’s goal as a result and, on the quarter-hour mark, the youngster – who linked up at Inver Park on loan from Utah-based MLS side Real Salt Lake – skewed another shot wide.
Chances at either end followed. On 20 minutes, defender Donnelly bore a 25-yard free-kick straight down Orbinson’s throat before, not a minute later, Bangor caught as good a sight of goal as they’d had.
Adam Neale retained well under pressure and picked out Seanna Foster in close proximity; as his former Cliftonville team-mate Donnelly raced back, the 26-year-old slid in Scott McArthur’s darting run down the right flank, and the attacking midfielder cut back across the goal-face only for a defensive block to deny Neale the deadlock-breaker.
Chances like those, one thought, would be few and far between.
The livewire Paul was up to his tricks again, forcing Orbinson to tip around the post on 23 minutes, but the reprieve was brief.
From the resulting corner, Larne opened the scoring.
While the first ball was cleared inside the six-yard area, Gordon collected the second ball and let fly. Amid a crowd of bodies, the Fermanagh man’s low drive was sure to find a boot one way or another, and it found one of his own; that of Corey Smith, who poked in.
Stat attack:
It took until his ninth appearance, but Bangor have finally conceded a goal with Karl Devine on the pitch this season.
Establishing a burgeoning reputation for himself at Dungannon Swifts before making the full-time switch in the summer, he just pipped Reece Neale to prod in. It was unfortunate to ship with 25 minutes played from a Seasider standpoint, but those fine margins can be punishing.
After Gordon curled over the crossbar shortly after, Larne doubled the lead nine minutes out from half-time.
The cunning Allan fired a goalward shot that cued Paul and David Hume to jostle for the ball, but the quick feet of a player picked at No.7 in the latest MLS SuperDraft were to prove clinically telling.
He got goal-side of the Ballygowan centre-back, in at shot-stopper Orbinson and fired home at the near post, in turn making the black-and-white-kitted Seasiders’ mountain yet steeper to scale.
Larne still had the wind in their sails and the desire to make it safe as the minutes ticked down to the interval, and Allan – a £3.5million player at the peak of his powers – almost made it so. The midfielder, using the outside of his boot, targeted the bottom left corner four minutes out from the pause, but an alert Orbinson was equal to tip around the post; that said, the succession of corners felt endless.
It was small wonder that the strike that settled affairs came from exactly that scenario.
A looping delivery from the left side on 43 minutes, after Foster had misplaced a header back to Orbinson, teed up another Scotsman – Thomson – to lash it goal-bound, although his miscue instead set advanced defender Farquhar up in his stride to put the outcome beyond doubt.
Thomson swiped his attempt right along the face of goal, and Ballymena native Farquhar, with near enough a free header, nodded home for his first finish since swapping the blue corner of Shanes Hill for the red one during the summer.
Half-time, and the home team were three to the good.
From there, the visitors’ priorities were perhaps shifting to facing Knockbreda on Sunday in the Playr-Fit Championship – but that was not without rewarding the travelling faithful with a fighting effort post the interval at Inver.
Reserves Player of the Year Millar was introduced for Foster, taking up his natural left-back role while Mathieson switched to the right flank. While a makeshift backline, Millar showcased on his senior debut at Tobermore in May that he has a big future in the game, but all the same, the turf of the Irish League champions is an all-new cauldron.
Making the right mark:
After coming on for his senior debut against Tobermore United on the final day of last season, Sam Millar’s stock took another leap with a well-acquitted display against Larne at Inver Park as he came on at half-time. Image from Sarah Harkness.
The 17-year-old was by no means scalded by the heat of the moment, though.
Cool as ice, in fact. Indeed, he’d a hand to play in the first chance of a second period Bangor began brightly.
On 51 minutes, Millar whipped in a low delivery from the left that was cleared only as far as Mathieson. Further infield this time, the ex-Ballyclare Comrades star targeted the top right corner from 20 yards, and stand-in Larne keeper Aidan Dowling was rooted and powerless to stop it, but the 23-year-old’s enterprising effort edged just the wrong side of the post.
Both sides traded blows in the lead-up to the hour. 12 minutes of the half had elapsed when a flick-on denied substitute Paul O’Neill a back-post tap-in, while three minutes later, a Reece Neale free-kick found the towering Lewis Francis – although the Magherafelt teen’s goal-face cross from the right byline was just too high for an unmarked Adam Neale to notch his second goal of the season.
Paul was denied by the feet of Orbinson with 62 minutes played, while Karl Devine’s worthwhile distance effort up the other end on 66 deflected into Dowling’s arms.
The 28-year-old, who was making his third start in succession having hitherto not made one since February, was replaced by another youngster after 69 minutes – fleet-footed forward and new second-string captain Trainor was introduced from the bench for his third senior appearance. He, too, looked lively and energised.
Dynamic presence:
There is excitement from within the club about Kristian Trainor, a player who now has an added sense of responsibility this term as Bangor Reserves captain. Able to impress both from midfield and out wide, his work ethic and skillset have earned him first-team opportunities. Image from Sarah Harkness.
It was stand-in captain Kearns’ turn to be denied by Orbinson shortly after that alteration before, on 73 minutes, Larne likely should have made it four.
Mark Randall timed his tackle on Jack Henderson to perfection and looked to chart the ball’s course into the bottom right corner when he homed in on goal, but a figure who has made senior substitute benches for Arsenal in the Champions League placed past the post when the odds looked in his favour. There was no discounting Orbinson, though, given he made himself big and, thanks to a succession of strong saves, perhaps warranted the second-half shut-out.
Player spotlight:
Featuring for his 11th appearance in a Bangor goalkeeping shirt since joining the club last summer, Marc Orbinson took on a tough assignment against Larne and caught the eye in the second half especially; he made an array of smart saves to stop Ilijah Paul and Daniel Kearns in their tracks, with a shut-out recorded for that period of the game. Image from Sarah Harkness.
An Allan attempt that raised high of the crossbar nine minutes from time notwithstanding, the match’s denouement was an anticlimax.
Such that chief whistler Keith Kennedy saw no need, just as at the first period’s conclusion, to add more time to what had already been played.
Given how the rain was beating down, you couldn’t blame him.
A fair outcome, it must be said, as Larne advanced to the semi-finals of the County Antrim Shield at Bangor’s expense; they will play one of Ballymacash Rangers or Knockbreda on a soon-to-be-determined date, while the Seasiders swiftly switch their focus onto facing the latter in a rare Sunday kick-off this weekend.
Fixtures up against high-calibre opposition always compel you to look for the plus points.
| County Antrim Shield | Quarter-Finals (10/10/23) | ||
| Ards | 0 | 2 | Glentoran |
| Ballymacash Rangers | A* | A | Knockbreda |
| Carrick Rangers | 3 | 1 | Dundela |
| Larne | 3 | 0 | Bangor |
Here, there were a few. The displays by Millar and Trainor, of course, reinforce optimism that the future is bright; the wise head of Halliday, who entered in McArthur’s place with 10 to go, further settled affairs and helped ensure there was to be no extension to Larne’s margin of victory.
Staring down Premiership adversaries, such as on Tuesday night and the previous Tuesday when Coleraine were pushed all the way, has its benefits, whether in victory or defeat.
Last week, the momentum that was gained from a positive performance against the Bannsiders added fuel for the match-up against Annagh, which resulted in three well-earned points.
The hope is that a similar result can be achieved that would shoot those in yellow and blue to the 20-point mark just 11 matchdays in.
Featured image from Sarah Harkness.
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