Glebe Rangers 1 – 1 Loughgall
| Elder 67m | Moffatt 50m |
Loughgall started their league defence with a draw after a tightly contested game away to Glebe Rangers. New signing Andy Hamilton was given a starting role in central midfield alongside Brian Adair while fellow arrivals Ally Evans and Davy Hawthorne were listed as substitutes.
The first half saw both teams struggle to break each other down and few decent chances were created. On 22 minutes Paul Baron saw his shot from outside the penalty area fail to trouble Madison in the home goals. 5 minutes later good attacking football from Loughgall led to Brian Adair testing ‘keeper Madison with a well struck low drive.
The Villagers opened the scoring 5 minutes into the second half when Ryan Moffatt did well to rob the Glebe defence of the ball before calmly slotting home from 10 yards. Substitute Ally Evans almost extended Loughgall’s advantage when he hit a left-footed effort over the crossbar on the edge of the penalty area.
Rangers scrambled the equaliser in the 67th minute and it was lively substitute Tommy Elder who got the last touch on the ball after a number of deflections gave the striker the chance to find the bottom corner of the net.
Loughgall rallied and threatened when Davy Hawthorne collected Baron’s inside pass before unleashing a fierce shot which dragged past the post.
Glebe managed to clear the ball of their goal line twice in the final few minutes, firstly from Moffatt who headed Baron’s corner towards the far post and then when frantic goalmouth action involving Andy Hamilton and Alan Murphy saw the ball nearly be put into the net twice.
Date: Saturday 2nd August 2008
Competition: IFA Championship
Venue: Riada Stadium, Ballymoney
Kick-Off: 2.00pm
Loughgall: Robinson, Waddell, A Smith (Evans 45m), Alderdice, Murphy, Hamilton, Moffatt, Adair Hawthorne 69m), Baron, Pentland, D Smith (Brown 69m). Subs not used: Herron, Clarke.
Glebe Rangers: Madison, McComb (Ramsey 90m), Campbell, Marks, Watson, Bellingham, McCay (Nicholl 60m), Vauls, Parkhill (Elder 45m), Parsons, Wilkinson. Sub not used: Gardiner.
Referee: S Wallace.
