MORE AWAY DAY BLUES FOR COBRAS

COPANY TEAM

Two first half goals laid the platform for a Whitestrand home win over Copany at a rain-drenched Whitestrand Park.

Copany started well, creating a couple of half chances in the opening 15 minutes as the hosts failed to settle.

The first moment of clear controversy was a yellow card for the home keeper for handling the ball outside the box denying what would have been an open goal for Glen Harron, to the away sides disappointment.

From the subsequent free kick at the edge of the area, David Graham unleased a piledriver which flew just over the crossbar.

Whitestrand took the lead on 25 minutes, when a shot from the left hand side flew into the bottom corner of the net following some good work from the Whitestrand center forward.

Lee Doherty thought he had levelled proceedings four minutes later after getting behind the defense and slotting past the keeper, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Whitestrand doubled their advantage on 32 minutes, when some sloppy defensive work by the away side resulted in a finish from five yards following a slide rule pass.

Daryl Duncan spurned a glorious opportunity when he made a perfectly timed run behind the defense to latch onto a fine pass from Aaron Scott, but did not connect properly with the ball taking an untimely bobble and his effort flashed wide of the goal.

Copany had created a number of chances in the first half, and were unlucky to be two goals down.

The Cobras upped the ante somewhat and took the game to Whitestrand in the second period.

Center half Grahams son, David Harron was introduced on the hour mark for his Copany debut in what is surely the first father and son combination to have played for Copany, and the youngster got involved in the game well with Copany in the ascendancy.

After struggling to break down the Whitestrand rearguard, eventually the usual goal threat David Graham pulled one back on 67 minutes when he fired home from the edge of the area to the bottom corner of the net.

Whitestrand were reduced to 10 men when the center half got unneccesarily involved following a late tackle.

Whitestrand continued to slow the pace of the game as they had done for most of the half, and it paid dividends in the end as they held onto the victory.

Team effort by Copany.