Lifford upset favourites Avenue in cup final

Avenue United A 2
Lifford A 3

LIFFORD caused a big upset when they defeated the favourites and their great Ennis rivals, Avenue United in the final of the Premier League Cup at Doora on Sunday.

Conditions were ideal for the tie, which produced some great football with Avenue’s good passing game being matched by the more direct style from Lifford.
Avenue were first to score when David McCarthy beat the Lifford offside trap and shot past the advancing Jan Da Silva after 15 minutes.
Lunga Balman was in great form for Lifford and he had the sides back on level terms 10 minutes later when his header beat John Healy in the Avenue goal. This left the sides tied at 1-1 and this was the position at half-time.
Just before the half-time whistle, Avenue lost their goalscorer McCarthy due to injury and he was replaced by Barry Nugent.
Referee Tommy Guilfoyle was also hit by injury and he was unable to return for the second half. He was replaced by linesman Dave McCarthy with John Murray taking over the line duties.
Two minutes into the new half, a cross from Balman found Darren O’Neill and the tall 20-year-old headed powerfully to the net. Avenue piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser but the Lifford defence held firm.
Ten minutes from the end, a Darren O’Neill cross was controlled by Scott Hennessy, who passed to the in-rushing Ruairi Norrby and he shot past Healy to put Lifford 3-1 ahead.
Avenue hit back but a Mikey Mahoney goal was disallowed for an offside infringement. Their pressure paid off two minutes later when Mattie Nugent’s free kick found the net.
They tried to equalise but the Donal Magee-managed Lifford held firm to win the inaugural Shannon Trophies Cup. They also won 25 tickets to any Republic of Ireland International game at the Aviva Stadium.
After the game, Clare League chairman Donie Garrihy presented the cup to the Lifford captain Michael J Sullivan.

Lifford: Jan Da Silva; Joe Lynch, Dylan Blake, Michael J Sullivan, Hamad Kuku; Pat Darcy, Lunga Balman, TJ Ajisomo, Scott Hennessy, Darren O’Neill, Ruairi Norrby.
Subs: Pat Mannion, Paul Costigan, Jules Leke, Ryan Boyle, Eoin Murphy and Eric Murphy.
Avenue United: John Healy; Simon Cuddy, Dylan Casey, Matty Nugent, David Russell, Gary Flynn, David Herlihy, Con Collins, Sean Corry, Dave McCarthy, Mikey Mahoney.
Subs: Barry Nugent, Shane Browne, Eamonn O’Reilly, Paddy O’Malley, Colm Mullen and Nathan Murray.