Liverpool star Bradley cheers on hometown club St Patrick’s

LIVERPOOL’S rising star Conor Bradley was on the sideline at Castlederg’s Mitchell Park on Saturday as Newtownstewart United edged out his former club St Pat’s 4-3 in a seven-goal thriller.

Bradley was home visiting friends and family following his man of the match performance in the Carabro League Cup semi-final against Fulham on Wednesday and his impressive cameo against Arsenal in an FA Cup tie last weekend.

Unfortunately for Pats, it was Newtown who came out on top by scoring twice in the final five minutes to maintain their promotion push.

An 84th minute strike by Thomas McMenamin looked to have won it for Pats but the visitors had other ideas and goals by Michael Ward and Tiarnan Mayse secured the points keep Aaron Walsh’s team hot on the heels of the top two.

Newtown are six points behind leaders Ballinamallard United Reserves but  move to within a point of second-placed Drumquin and with a game in hand.

It’s all to play for and United boss Walsh was delighted with the character shown by his players in chiselling out their seventh win of the season.

“Fifteen minutes of madness in the second half saw us going from being in the driving seat to falling behind,” said the Newtown boss.

“To be fair my boys showed character when it could have been easy to feel sorry for themselves. They showed what I have seen since I came in – that they have character and fight. And with a match-winner in Tiarnan Mayse we will always have a chance. He was again the matchwinner and I’m just shocked that he scored with his head!”

Tyler Stockton connected with an inviting James Duffy corner kick to open the scoring with a bullet header for the home side on 22 minutes.

But it was all square at the interval when Caolan Harvey marked his return to St Pats with a stunning half volley.

In truth, Newtown took control of proceedings after the interval and it was no real surprise when the visitors again took the lead with Ciaran McSorley racing through to slide the ball past home net-minder Conall McNamee.

However Pats were far from finished. Aaron McNamee fired through a crowded penalty box to level the contest and just six minutes later McMenamin put the homesters in front by adding the finishing touch to a thrilling free-flowing attack.

Crucially, though, Ward replied within 60 seconds and it was Newtown who pushed on with Mayse grabbing the deciding goal a minute from time.

Pats boss Paul McNamee, who thought the winning goal was suspiciously offside, was understandably disappointed that his players had failed to hold out for the win.

“We were a bit naive not to see it out,” he moaned.

“We have a relatively young squad  but we’ll learn and move on. It’s a building process till the end of the year and we’ll make our mark next season.”