Sirocco Works 3-1 Glentoran
Goalscorer Ben Cushnie
Glentoran II exited the Steel and sons cup on Saturday with a below par performance at Sirocco.
Sirocco, well schooled in the dark arts and much more experienced than the young Glens were well worth their victory on the day and played some good football to accompany the more robust side of the game that Glentoran failed to deal with on the day.
Sirocco took the lead inside 7 minutes when a long throw in was fired right on top of McLaughlin. Paul punched clear but the loose ball was fired into the roof of the net from 18 yards.
The long throw was a main feature of the game and every time Sirocco for a throw in the final third it was landed right into box and the Glens back line dealt with the threat for the rest of the first half but the they couldnt find any rythmn of their own in the game and created precious little in front of goal.
Glentoran started the second half a bit better and forced an equaliser mid way through the half through Ben Cushnie - Ben making his first start in 6 weeks due to injury headed home a Jamie Glover cross for 1-1.
Sirocco ramped up the physicality again and Glentoran fell back onto the back foot and another series of long throws created Sirocco's second in a carbon copy of the first.
Five minutes later the game was put to bed. This time a corner and the second ball was fired through a sea of legs and deflected into the path of a Sirocco player who made no mistake from 5 yards.
The Glens huffed and puffed for the remaining ten minutes but bar a free kick from Smith that was tipped over didn't really threaten the Sirocco goal.
This will go down as a valuable lesson for the players along with the game against Dunmurry Young Men last week where the style of game is different from the u20 league and the players will learn how to play football in these types of matches but for this season, when all bar one of the starting 11 should have been playing in the Harry Cavan Cup game, this was a bridge too far.
The same group of players will hopefully be around for another crack at the competition for another season or two yet!
Congratulations to Sirocco who were fully deserving of the win on the day.