No Cup upsets as OLBC and Corrib Rangers both advance

Cup football generally brings out the best in the underdog, and while they ultimately came up short over the weekend, lower division sides Medtronic and Colga certainly made life difficult for Premier Division OLBC and Corrib Rangers before the top flight sides eventually prevailed in their Michael Byrne Cup contests.

In Connacht Junior Cup action, Oughterard and St Patricks were generally in command as they advanced to Fourth Round away ties against Glen Celtic and Ballinasloe Town.

Medtronic 3OLBC 4

For first-time visitors to the confines of Roscam, the observations of the visiting camp are always the same: “it’s tight and it will be hard to play out there”.

And so it proved at the weekend as Medtronic fought back from two down to grab a 3-2 lead, before eventually succumbing to the high flying visitors.

Boys Club took an early lead, when David Horan got a touch to a Ronan Caldwell delivery and they added a second when Kieran Caldwell swept a David McDonagh cross past Conor Sweeney to make it 2-0.

Just before the break, Craig Cloherty set up Alan Nicholson to pull one back.

The visitors had a great opportunity to kill off the home challenge just a minute after the restart, but Danny McDonagh had a penalty well saved by Sweeney.

The miss seemed to inspire Medtronic as they contrived to take a 3-2 lead. Nicholson notched his second of the day when getting on the end of an Alan O’Riordan corner; and an upset appeared to be on the cards when Danny Donovan fired the home side ahead.Despite being understrength, OLBC are nothing if not dogged

and Kieran Caldwell beat a covering defender before slotting home the equaliser.

With time running out they struck for the winner when Ronan Caldwell got his head to a Jason McDonagh corner to eventually kill off the home side’s challenge.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.