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Armagh v Crusaders 29/09/07

It was a day of frustration when a late late goal robbed the Crues of their first league win of the campaign. A greasy pitch made control difficult and some had trouble keeping their feet. Crusaders got off to a dream start when the ball fell to Eamonn Doherty outside the box. He struck it well and his shot deflected past Addis in the Armagh goal. Armagh immediately had a chance to equalize when Coney for them looked to be heading for a one on one with Gregg Shannon but a timely sliding challenge by Gary Smyth cleared any danger. As with previous matches goal scoring chances were few and far between. Midfield work was not being finished and too often the final ball was disappointing. Armagh came close to equalizing when Shannon pushed the ball round the post for a corner from a hard low shot. In the 34th minute Armagh were awarded a free kick just outside the Crues box. Crusaders were left rueing their bad luck when the resulting kick took not one but two wicked deflections to give Shannon no chance. Crusaders may gone into the break behind only for the crossbar when a header bounced back off the bar as was cleared away.

Half time Armagh 1 - 1 Crusaders

Darren Lockhart replaced Martin Reilly at the start of the second half. Shannon stopped Armagh taking the lead a couple of minutes into the second half when he brilliantly tipped a hard high shot over the bar. Chris Morrow later got the ball on the left and knocked in a good cross but Stephen Coulter could only hit the shot straight at Addis in goal. Armagh by this side had more of the ball than the Crues and looked dangerous. On the hour Davy Magowan, who was having a really good game threaded an inch perfect pass through to Lockhart who kept his head and shot low past Addis's left hand to give the Crues the lead again. Declan Caddell replaced Eamon McAllister. Caddell and Coulter combined with a one two and passed to Morrow who had a shot straight at the Armagh 'keeper. Davy Rainey also had a good shot from range which was pushed round for a corner which Armagh easily dealt with. Crues fans by this stage were thinking we were getting our first 3 point haul. Whereas last week we played a great game against Portadown and got nothing out of it, it looked like we were going to get all the points from a generally below par performance. It was too good to be true . In the last minute a cross was floated into the Crues box. Shannon got his hands to it but it was spilled at the feet of an Armagh attacker who tapped it in. So there it was, so near and yet so far the elusive first win still to come our way.

Full Time Armagh 2 - 2 Crusaders

Team

1:-Shannon; 2:-Magowan; 3:-McBride; 4:-Doherty; 5:-Hunter; 6:-Smyth; 7:-Morrow; 8:-McAllister (Caddell70); 9:-Reilly (Lockhart45); 10:-Rainey; 11:-Coulter (Lenaghan 86)