Mid Cheshire League (Eng)

0-0

Northern Ireland (Nir)


UEFA Regions Cup
Central/West Preliminary Round
Dekani, Slovenia
22 september 2004

A British derby produced a stalemate in the second game of the UEFA Regions Cup yesterday, thereby setting up an exciting last day on Friday.

This was addded to by a surprise win for the Maltese team against Primorska, the hosts, by a margin of 2-1. This now means that all but the Slovenians could potentially qualify with the right result on Match Day 3.

The Mid Cheshire side controlled the first fifteen minutes of play, going close in the 8th minute with a shot across the face of goal, just outside the far post from Chris Gahgan. The 19th minute brought a yellow card for Lee Pennington, after a series of fouls, and seven minutes later he was fortunate to stay on the pitch after another strong challenge.

The best chance of the half came in the 30th minute when Kevin Towey, who started the game in place of Aidan Brodigan, opened up the Irish defence, and pulled the ball back only for Chris Gahgan to fire over from 18 yards.

The Northern Irish came out all guns blazing after half time and put England's Mid Cheshire team under pressure. The only respite being a handling error from the Irish keeper, who fooled by the bounce had to drop the ball on the edge of his box, allowing Neil Critchley to lob the ball just over the bar.

Mid Cheshire got back into the game quickly though from a needless free kick, the Northern Irish put the ball in the back of the England net only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.

A slip by Steve Davies enabled Mark Craig to get a shot in for the Irish but Richie Mottram was equal to it in goal, tipping over for a corner.

The last real excitement of the game occurred as Ryan Brown, the Irish keeper, came racing out of his goal in the 83rd minute, whilst his captain, Gareth Liggett headed the ball past him, with the ball goal bound. Liggett just managed to recover and conceded a throw.

Nick Armitage, the newest England manager, said after the game "I am happy with a point and our fate is in our own hands. We know what we have to do against Malta on Friday, and the lads will be focussed on getting the job done".

Captain and England's man of the match Stuart Fraser was also equally satisfied "If you had offered us four points after two games last Saturday night, then we would have taken them; it is now another cup final for the team on Friday".