In the Irish Cup Sixth Round, there were three all-Premiership ties pulled out of the hat that all but confirms the amount of top-flight clubs will have at least been slashed in half from the last-32 by the time the quarter-finals roll around.
League leaders Linfield will host relegation-battling Ballymena United, second-placed Larne entertain Glenavon while Cliftonville, in third, face Loughgall at Solitude.
The three remaining top-tier outfits all have potential banana-skin road trips when February arrives – Dungannon Swifts and Newry City face Championship opponents Ballyclare Comrades and Newington, while Glentoran are Lisburn-bound to take on third-tier Ballymacash Rangers.
After the Fifth Round, which saw Crusaders and Carrick Rangers dramatically bested on their home turf in penalty shoot-outs against Ards and Portadown – the lower-league side prevailing each time – and Coleraine eliminated after Ronan Hale’s hat-trick proved ever so decisive in extra-time for Cliftonville, there certainly has been a bit of shock value.
Nine Premiership, six Championship and one Premier Intermediate League. All three flights of the Irish League remain represented in the last-16.
Among the lower rungs, it could’ve been more, too.
Ballymena may have given Queen’s University an education at The Dub in south Belfast with an emphatic 4-0 victory, however the Students’ PIL promotion rivals Warrenpoint Town gave David Healy’s Linfield a test where they almost failed to make the grade.
Had young frontman Chris McKee not netted right on the stroke of half-time after Warrenpoint soared into a two-goal advantage at Windsor Park, the Mourne men might’ve seen through a shock with even greater magnitude than when Queen’s disposed of the Blues in 2020. Red faces averted, though, and a stern examination passed as McKee again, Darragh McBrien and Matthew Fitzpatrick turned the tide in the second period for a 4-2 triumph.
Larne and Glenavon secured routine successes on away days to second-tier H&W Welders – who took the Invermen right to the dying embers before Andy Ryan broke their hearts in the quarter-finals last March – and Knockbreda, scoring four apiece, while Loughgall avoided an upset at home to Amateur League side Rosemount Rec, winning 3-0 to tee up that date with Jim Magilton’s Reds at a venue where they have already picked up a point in the Premiership.
Cliftonville’s Irish Cup woes have been so well-documented – one Irish Cup in the last 115 years is about as scarcely believable a statistic as you can get in these sorts of circles – that the home faithful can never call a thing… well, apart from that they’ll go another year without lifting the thing.
Football is unscripted, though, and who knows; could that 45-year drought end yet?
Elsewhere, the lowest-ranked side, Falls Road institution and Border Cup champions Willowbank of Amateur League 1B, were beaten 5-0 by Dungannon Swifts a full FIVE divisions above them. Newry, though, only edged it by the odd goal in five; in Barry Gray’s first match in charge since swapping Warrenpoint for the other side of the Mourne Ultimatum, he recorded a debut 3-2 success over 2019 Irish Cup Finalists Ballinamallard United at The Showgrounds.
Lastly, Glentoran also won by just one goal at home. It took until the 90th minute, but Junior finally broke Annagh United’s resolve that already has Oval chief Warren Feeney distinctly wary of underestimating Ballymacash, steered from the touchline by a lifelong Glens supporter in Lee Forsythe.
And why wouldn’t he be. Shock value is alive and well in the Irish Cup, and those at the top end of the pyramid are in no doubt that they must bring their A-game every time to progress further through the tournament.
The Sixth Round promises to be no-holds-barred as well.
Featured image from Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker Press.
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