Bryansburn Rangers FC

BRYANSBURN EXIT STEEL & SONS

Lady Luck dealt a cruel blow to Bryansburn in the Steel & Sons. Having been only eight minutes away from booking a glamour tie at the Oval when their game was abandoned the previous Saturday – ‘Burn were leading Crusaders Reserves 2-1 at Seaview – the Co Antrim rearranged the tie for last Wednesday. ‘Burn had five players in Scotland for the NI friendly and Crusaders as expected took the opportunity to give some of their first team squad badly needed match practice. Having said that Bryansburn gave a good account before being edged out 2-0. ‘Burn trailed 1-0 at the break to a header and the Crusaders doubled the lead two minutes into the second half with a goal that was yards offside. Bryansburn then had their best spell of the match with Edwards, Thompson, Malomo-Paris and Coard all either having efforts saved or go just wide. If they had of pulled a goal back at this stage it would have set up a grandstand finish but it was not to be.

Black Day for Bryansburn

Despite turning in a perfectly reasonable performance and having more than their fair share of play in an away Border Cup tie, fate conspired to doom Bryansburn to an incredible 6-0 defeat against Ards Rangers.

The first indication that it was going to be a bad day for Bryansburn came in the second minute when, with Bryansburn attacking, the Ards Rangers ‘keeper sent a massive kick downfield over the heads of the ‘Burn defence leaving Miller with a simple run in and a comfortable finish.

Bryansburn continued to play well enough and arguably looked the better side but on the half hour mark, a long throw delivered into the box was not dealt with. Centre half Williams allowed Anderson to turn him easily in the box to allow the big centre forward a gift of a goal. Minutes before the break MAGEE upended his man in the box for a certain penalty which Miller stepped up to despatch into the bottom left corner of the net to give Ards an unassailable 3-0 lead. On balance, if anything, Bryansburn had the better of the first half exchanges with MOORE dictating a series of fine moves on the right but went in shell shocked at half time.

However, if Bryansburn thought that their troubles were over after the break, they were sadly mistaken. Two snap shots from the edge of the box in the first two minutes rocketed into the top corners of the Bryansburn net. Ards Rangers must have thought Christmas day had come early and there was more pain for Bryansburn as upcoming young star COOLING was rushed off to hospital in an ambulance. Bryansburn continued to play out the remainder of the half reasonably well but just to complete a thoroughly bad day at the office, they were denied a consolation stonewall penalty and Ards Rangers rubbed it in with a sixth goal.

Whilst it will be hard to take for the Bryansburn players, anyone who witnessed this game, will all agree that this was not as easy for Ards Rangers as the score line suggests. The midfield four and two young full backs of Bryansburn were excellent throughout the game but it’s evident that a cutting edge is missing from the Bryansburn frontline.

Luck balances out over a period of time and Bryansburn on another day will play worse and win the match.