Woe for Whites as Armagh score nine in goal-fest

Lisburn Distillery played Armagh City last Saturday, despite being relegated they were determined to have a good end to the season but they found themselves on the wrong end of a 9-1 drubbing.
Distillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / PresseyeDistillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / Presseye
Distillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / Presseye

It was Distillery who carved out a chance inside two minutes as Ryan Corrigan fired over following a pull back from Matthew Rooney.

Armagh City, however, then took the lead as young ‘keeper Jake Nelson narrowly misjudged a long ball over the defence, which in turn fell to the feet of Andrew Hoey who squared the ball to Stefan Lavery who fired the ball low into the bottom corner of the net.

Distillery levelled on ten minutes as Rhys Grainger beat the offside trap and burst on to a through ball from Rooney before coolly slotting past the onrushing Sean Morgan, a great goal from the youngster.

Distillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / PresseyeDistillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / Presseye
Distillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / Presseye

Armagh retook the lead on 31 minutes due to a defensive error as Lavery took advantage of a Distillery mistake, but again the Whites responded well and could have levelled as McIlhagga crossed the ball into the box for Grainger but his shot was well blocked. 

City got their third on the stroke of the break as Hoey played the ball across the face of the box for Donnelly to fire the ball into the net after yet another lapse of concentration in the Whites defence.  

The Whites certainly weren’t out of the game by this stage and indeed had a superb chance to pull a goal back inside two minutes of the second half as Corrigan hit a sweet low cross into Noel Halfpenny, but he was well challenged by Ultan Lennon just before he was going to pull the trigger.  

The nightmare began for the Whites, who on another day could easily have had four or five goals during this spell themselves.

Distillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / PresseyeDistillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / Presseye
Distillery's Matthew Rooney and Armagh's Patrick Lavery during Saturday's match at New Grosvenor. Photo by Tony Hendron / Presseye

Hoey added Armagh’s fourth and followed soon after with number five as an error strewn defensive performance left the Whites reeling.

Distillery made another defensive error for Armagh’s sixth as Simpson mis-kicked his clearance the ball falling to Lavery who ran through and he finished with aplomb hitting the ball across Nelson.  

Going forward the Whites looked positive and young Darius Roohi had a very good chance to pull a goal back for the Whites as his header sailed inches wide of goal from close range.

It seemed like every time the visitors attacked they scored and they went 7-1 ahead as Lavery got on the end of a Sean Mallon through ball to fire his shot past Nelson.

Lavery scored his fifth goal as Distillery left the striker free to run through and he slotted the ball across Nelson and into the net for eight and McGerrigan added a ninth shortly afterwards.

A terrible result then for the Whites to confirm their relegation, but there were many positives from the younger members of the team to draw comfort from and doubtless these youngsters will get more chances to impress in the weeks and indeed the months ahead.

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