Young guns defeat Dungannon

COLERAINE Academy under-11’s recently celebrated a hard fought win over Dungannon in the NIBFA Cup second round…

NIBFA Cup Second Round

Coleraine Under 11 3-3 Dungannon Swifts (Coleraine win 3-1 on penalties)

Coleraine Under 11’s made the long journey to Dungannon on Saturday morning for their first ever NIBFA competitive fixture. After a sluggish first period they struggled to get a foothold in the game and fell behind to a well taken Dungannon goal. This seemed to wake the boys up and finally they started to play football and created some good chances. Five minutes before half-time, Coleraine got a deserved equaliser when Ashton somehow managed to squeeze the ball by the diving Dungannon keeper.

Into the second half, Dungannon again started the more brightly, bursting through the Coleraine defence shooting into the bottom corner. The boys never say die attitude kicked in and they were unlucky not to get back level when Conor and Thomas had great efforts that went narrowly wide. With 10 minutes to go Coleraine got a well deserved leveller when Conor put a great corner into the front post and Dara glanced it in. This clearly unsettled Dungannon and Coleraine once again played Thomas through to take a deserved lead. Dungannon then upped the tempo and threw everything at Coleraine in the last 8 minutes and this needed a world class save from Charlie to keep them out. With 2 minutes to go Dungannon got their equaliser when their striker managed to get through the Coleraine defence to play a pass to their other striker to nod home – FT 3-3.

The game went to penalties were Charlie pulled off three fantastic saves after Pierce, Dara and Conor all converted their penalties to see the Bannsiders through to the Third Round and a home derby against Ballymena United Academy. The kids were fantastic after a slow start against a strongly fancied Dungannon team. They showed great team spirit and fought hard for each other and ground out a fantastic result.