Redemption as Fivemiletown United ends trophy drought

Fivemiletown United 2
Oxford Sunnyside 0

FIVEMILETOWN United buried the ghost of 11 seasons without a trophy by producing a near perfect performance to defeat the highly-fancied Oxford Sunnyside in the final of the Marshall Cup at Holm Park, Armagh on Friday evening.

Six days earlier Town were second best in losing the Premier Cup Final 4-1 to Windmill Stars but Chris McDowell and Barry Anderson’s team learned the lessons from that defeat to carve out a hugely impressive victory against a Sunnyside team that started as firm favourites to lift the prized silverware.

The contrast in the two finals from Fivemiletown’s perspective couldn’t have been greater. Instead of the sense of disappointment and dejection Town and their followers experienced against Stars, there was nothing but joy and jubilation after goals by man of the match Ethan Jordan and Glen Clarke had turned over their illustrious opponents in convincing fashion.

Player-manager McDowell paid tribute to his players and said putting a trophy in the cabinet was massive shot in the arm for the Valley Stadium club.

“For a start it gets the monkey off the back of not winning a trophy for 11 years,” said the joint-player-manager.

“For me and Barry it’s been an unbelieveable season in reaching two cup finals – and winning one of them – and finishing eighth in the league.

“Hopefully this will drive us on as a club to the next stage. For the club it’s massive. We arrived back at 11 o’clock on Friday night and the town was bouncing, it was mad.

“Losing the Premier Cup Final probably drove the players on; that feeling of bitter disappointment. They wanted to right a wrong.

“As a management team we learnt a lot from last week as well.

“It’s a great way to end the season. I’m glad the players done it but to be fair to them they have had a brilliant season. There has been dedication, commitment, hard work and so on and, of course, not forgeting the community buy-in and support.

“Winning the Marshall Cup is reward from everyone.”

In terms of the performance everything that went wrong against Windmill Stars was put right against Sunnyside and some more.

Five places and 30 points separated these teams in the league but United made a mockery of those stats by taking the game to their opponents.

Town played a higher defensive line and that appeared to give the Tyrone side a better platform to gain a foothold and dictate matters.

On 38 minutes their efforts were rewarded when Ivan Carson was brought down for a stonewall penalty. Oxford keeper Conor McCrory saved Jordan’s initial kick but the assistant referee ruled that the Sunnyside stopper had moved off his line. and the taker made no mistake second time around.

At the other end Oxford too had their moments in the first half but ex-Portadown player Marcio Soares blazed over the crossbar while Peter McCann had an attempt well saved by Conor McCarney.

Both sides again saw plenty of the ball in the second half but just after the hour Town grabbed a crucial second goal.

Striker Ricky Carroll took a sublime first touch to control substitute keeper Nathan Copeland’s goal kick before playing a clever ball around the corner for Clarke who gave McCrory no chance by arrowing the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

Thereafter Sunnyside threw the kitchen sink at Town but they simply couldn’t find a way past a well organised and committed United rearguard.
That added to Oxford’s frustration and in stoppage-time tempers boiled over in a mass melee. After the dust had settled match official Jason McClelland issued red to Oxford keeper McCrory and Nathan Sherry, a 67th minute replacement for Kyle Thompson.

Despite a staggering 14 minutes of stoppage-time, Town held on for famous and throughly deserved victory. During the jubilant celebrations, McDowell hailed his team’s display as the “perfect” performance.

“We told them to stay organised and that we would get out chances,” added the player-boss.

“They did that perfectly. We played five yards further up the field and that helped us because we knew the quality that Oxford had. That made a big difference.

“There was no comparison in our performance in the two finals and we deservedly got our rewards this time.”