Nortel hit for six by classy Coleraine
Coleraine 6
Nortel 0
NORTEL didn’t manage to spring Saturday’s big JJB Sports Irish Cup shock, losing six-nil away to Irish Premiership side Coleraine at Ballycastle Road.
Coach John McMinn, nonetheless, said he was “happy with the performance”. “I’m just disappointed that we got on the end of a six-nil, which sounds like a real hammering, which it wasn’t. Coleraine were always going to win, but four-one would have been a truer reflection, though it just goes to show that, if you make mistakes at all at this level, you get punished.”
Nortel sustained a blow during the week when keeper Stephen Harbinson, in such fine form of late, failed to shake off an injury thus opening the door for one-time Ards and Islandmagee netminder James Millar.
It was the Factory side, however, who were almost first off the mark; Mark Wilkinson rounding a couple of defenders but firing just over the bar.
Instead, it was Coleraine who showed the way on 16 minutes, with Gareth Tommons doing the necessary, after Millar had spilled an Aaron Canning cross.
Stephen Dooley added a second on the half hour.
Nortel could have been right back in the hunt just after the break had Dale Fenner not blazed his shot over the bar, having done well initially to conjure up the opening for himself.
Instead, it as the Bannsiders who effectively put the tie beyond reach, with the inevitable goal from Rory Patterson, racing onto a Michael Hegarty pass with Nortel’s offside appeals failing to impress referee Raymond Crangle.
The Division 1A side, to their credit, still tried to play football and might have pulled one back, had keeper David O’Hare not pulled off an excellent save to tip a Wilkinson drive round for a corner – from which Coleraine broke with a telling sting, culminating in Jody Tolan netting number four.
Two late strikes from Johnny Watt and Tolan only really served to make it all look more one sided than it actually was.
Next Saturday, it’s back to the league, where Nortel face a trip away to Rosario Youth Club.
Nortel; Millar – Lorrimer, McMinn, Kyle (A Doyle), Freyne – Bond, McRoberts, McClean, Fenner (Conlin) – McKay (T Kirk), Wilkinson. Sub (unused) Copten.
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Weather for Newtownabbey
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: South
