Down Memory Lane

LEON Knight marked his Coleraine debut with a brace as our ‘Down Memory Lane’ series recaps an away win against Glenavon in October 2010…

Date:

Saturday, October 16, 2010.

Result:

Glenavon 1-2 Coleraine

Goals – Haughey (61 mins); Knight (8 mins & 79 mins)

Report:

TWO debut goals from Leon Knight secured Coleraine a 2-1 victory in their Carling Premiership clash with Glenavon at Mourneview Park.

The 28 year old former Chelsea trainee opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a powerful finish after Darren Boyce had flicked on Davy O’Hare’s long kick forward. Knight held off a challenge from home skipper Conor Walsh and powered the ball past the helpless Andrew Plummer from close range.

Showing all the battling qualities expected from a Marty Quinn team, Glenavon didn’t lie down and were soon taking the game to Coleraine, pushing the Bannsiders back in their own half. Adrian Harper shot over while O’Hare got down well to gather a free kick from Stuart King.

Aaron Black slid in well to deny Sammy Stewart a shot on goal and then Coleraine had a narrow escape with the ball being cleared off the line. It wasn’t completely one-way traffic as a good run down the left by Carson resulted in a chance for Aaron Canning, playing in a more advanced position than normal on the right wing, but he put his shot wide. Then a Carson free kick played deep to the back post was headed over the bar by David Ogilby.

Coleraine were forced into a reshuffle at the back just before the break, with Kyle McVey being forced off through injury and Stephen Lowry replacing him, meaning Canning dropped back to right back and Beverland moved into the centre beside Ogilby. The re-shaped defence were confronted with a challenge straight away as Mark Haughey headed against the bar before the ball was eventually scrambled clear.

The second half started with Coleraine going close through Lowry, who got on the end of a Jonny Harkness cross, but was denied by a well-timed intervention from a defender. Glenavon debutant Gary Hamilton’s own poor finishing frustrated his attempts to get off the mark for his new club but the home side levelled the scores just after the hour mark as Lowry inadvertently flicked on a free kick and Haughey got in front of Black to head in at the back post.

Both sides pushed for a winner, with Coleraine going close after Canning drilled a cross into the box and it hit off Boyce, who perhaps didn’t know too much about it and was turned behind by Plummer. Then Glenavon went close with Mark Miskimmin, who scored twice against Coleraine back in August, being allowed too much space in the penalty box but he rolled his shot wide.

But with 11 minutes remaining, Coleraine scored what would turn out to be the decisive goal. Harkness sent in an inswinging free kick from the right hand touchline and Knight slipped between two defenders to get his head on the ball and direct it past Plummer.

There were a couple of nervous moments late on, but Coleraine’s defence held firm and O’Hare stopped an effort from Harper in the dying minutes as Coleraine sealed their first win at the Lurgan venue since February 2006, when coincidentally, the score was also 2-1.

Line-ups:

COLERAINE: O’Hare, Beverland, Harkness, Hegarty, McVey (Lowry ’39 mins), Boyce (Brown ’80 mins), Black, Knight, Carson, Canning, Ogilby.

Subs Not Used: Mukendi, Tommons, Docherty.

GLENAVON: Plummer, Shannon, Neill, Haughey, Walsh (Turkington (’90+4 mins), King (Harpur ’78 mins), Stewart, Harper, Hamilton, Grant, Miskimmin (Costello ’83 mins).

Subs Not Used: Grieve, Doherty.

Referee:

K Halliday