The Ants sectional league cup campaign came to an end tonight with defeat at Parklea against Port Glasgow with a Jasper Donnelly goal after 36 minutes the difference between the sides. The Ants gameplan took a blow in the 19th minute when Ronnie Nicholson had to go off injured and Jack McIlvaney came on in his place. The Ants fashioned the first real chance of the half when some lovely footwork by McLaughlin saw him beat a couple of defenders and then chip the goalkeeper but a great bit of defending saw the ball headed off the line when a goal looked certain. The Port took the lead in the 36th minute when JASPER DONNELLY put the ball past Patrick from close range despite the keepers best efforts to tip the ball over the bar but it looped into the net and the Port took the lead into the half time break.
The second half saw the Port almost double their lead straight from the restart, Dylan McLaughlin showed great pace when put through on goal but his effort flashed inches wide of Patrick’s far post. Two minutes later had another chance to have doubled their lead but Patrick made a great save with his legs and the ball was cleared to safety. The Ants nearly responded in the best possible fashion with an audacious lob from the halfway line that had Port keeper Beaton scrambling back and he just managed to grab the ball on the line. The game was flowing from end to end and Sean McLaughlin should have done much better for the Port when he found space in the box for a free header but he didn’t manage to hit the target and headed over. There was a bit of controversy in the 65th minute when Ants striker Ball took the ball past the keeper only to have his shirt pulled, as he fell the keeper dived through the back of the Ants man and then when he tried to get back up was tugged at again but the man in the middle deemed Beaton had played the ball and waved play on and the Port held on to take all 3 points
Ants Website Man of the Match –
