Irish Cup Round 1: Roe Rovers 1 Bryansburn Rangers 2

1sts survived a 110 minute cliff-hanger before they emerged as 2-1 winners over Roe Rovers in their 1st Round Irish Cup tie. Having made the 150 mile round trip to Limavady with only 13 players injuries forced them to play the final 55 minutes with 10 men and only the woodwork, goal-line clearances, dogged determination and some clinical finishing took them over the finishing line.
Bryansburn started well, outplaying a hesitant Roe, and were unlucky when Morrison’s header from a Kehoe cross beat the keeper but rebounded off the cross-bar after only 4 minutes. Parkes saw a shot saved, a C. Cooling free-kick went wide but they had to wait until the 18th minute for their deserved breakthrough. Coard slid a ball through to Morrison who calmly curled the ball past the keeper for 1-0. Rovers responded immediately and ‘Burn weathered an anxious period with a string of goalmouth scares, a point-blank save from Close and only a high & wide C. Cooling free-kick in response. Devlin pulled up and was replaced by Hannion but Roe continued to press and the home side saw an offside goal and a high free-kick deny them an equaliser before ‘Burn’s Mitchell almost made it 2 with a header past the post in the final seconds of the half. Half-time 1-0 ‘Burn.
More bad news came at the re-start with Parkes joining the injury list to be replaced by Bryansburn’s last sub Higginson. An open exchange saw a couple of dangerous Roe corners, a blocked C. Cooling effort and a Coard shot over the bar but disaster appeared to have struck when McCloud limped off on the hour leaving ‘Burn with 10 men. Rovers used their “extra man” to good effect and within minutes they hit the post and saw A. Cooling (twice) and Kehoe clear shots off the line. It was “all-hands-to-the-pumps” in the 9-man Bryansburn defence with Gray, A. Cooling, Coard, and Clarke all making critical tackles as the clock ticked slowly towards the 90 minute mark. All Bryansburn’s hard work appeared to be undone when Rovers levelled at 1-1 in the 88th minute and only the post prevented an undeserved defeat seconds before the final whistle and the start of extra-time.
Clearly ‘Burn were facing an uphill struggle but somehow they managed to summon the energy to smother Rover’s all-out offensive and in the 5th minute spirits were lifted when Kehoe swung in a 40 yard cross and lone striker Morrison rose to head home for a 2-1 lead. Predictably it was a long, long 15 minutes to the end and ‘Burn were again grateful for 2 last-ditch tackles from Kehoe and tireless work from the full squad in seeing them through to a remarkable victory.
In an outstanding 13-man team performance Kehoe shone with A. Cooling & Morrison deserving special mention.