Beattie stars in Cloney rout

Aghalee Village 0

DONACLONEY entertained Aghalee Village on Saturday past, and for the second week running managed to score seven goals in the process of claiming victory.

Cloney started rather slowly, they struggled to get any fluency into their play and too often passes where going astray. As the game progressed however they started to carve out opportunities with Karl Diven down the left hand side given the Aghalee defence a torrid time.

Chances were created and it seemed it would only be a matter of time before scoring. On 14 minutes centre half Andrew Woods provided the finishing touch to a Diven corner to start the ball rolling.

William Hilary who was returning to action after a period out then came to the fore. On 20 minutes collected a Gareth McAdam through ball to slot past the keeper to double the Cloney’s lead. He then contrived to miss the simplest of chances after springing the offside trap, by dragging wide from close range. Moments later he redeemed himself by grabbing his second with a well placed header. Good exchange between Brooker and Leckey saw the latter deliver a perfect ball from which Hilary made no mistake.

Although Cloney struggled at times Aghalee never really troubled the home defence of Watson, Woods, Shields and McKinley while stand-in keeper Knox was mainly a bystander.

When Cloney did get the ball down and play they could easily have scored more with the usually deadly Leckey failing one on one with keeper. Diven, Brooker, Beattie and McAdam also had opportunities when just before the break Beattie did steal through to give the home side a 4 goal advantage.

Cloney continued to dominate after the break but perhaps all too often elaborated too much on the ball. It took the Cloney a further 20 minutes before they increased the lead with an Aghalee defender putting through his own net after another dangerous Diven corner. Cloney made a couple of changes after this bringing on Buchanan and Wells to replace Hilary and Leckey.

Aghalee battled hard to maintain some respectability while Cloney started to find some fluency with full-back Shields in particular overlapping down the right and creating more width. Shields saw a drive from the edge of the area fly over, while Buchanan from the opposite flank saw his effort finish with the same result.

Wells then was unable to get the final touch on a wicked Diven delivery, before Beattie increased the lead. Shields played a delightful one-two with Diven before racing into the box, and cut back to the unmarked Beattie to slam past the keeper for his second of the match.

Lance Watson tried with a couple of Wayne Rooney-esque bicycle kicks but narrowly missed on both occasions, before a final gallop up the pitch saw him drive a shot at close range which seemed to have crossed the line before rebounding back of the stricken keeper.

Woods who started the scoring eventually finished the scoring planting a firm header beyond the reach of the away keeper after a good cross from Buchanan for number seven. In the dying minutes it was Aghalee who had the last chance with Knox being call into action to push away when left exposed and one-on-one with the Aghalee forward.

A convincing win for Donacloney although on the day they did not really play to the best of their ability. Diven provided plenty of creativity on the day, but Beattie just pipped him to man of the match with a tenacious display in midfield married with a couple of goals.

∙ Cloney Reserves went down 4-0 to Richhill as their woes continue. Best on day was Joel McClure.

∙ This Saturday Cloney face an away trip to basement team Granville while the Reserves have a home game against Lisanally Rangers.