Ards 0-0 Killyleagh YC (Ards win 4-2 on penalties)

Ards made the final of the Adam Cowdy Tournament by defeating Killyleagh, although it took penalty kicks to finally settle a disappointing game.

Chances were a rarity in the first half with neither side really putting together anything of substance. Killyleagh's best effort of the half was a seventh minute free kick from just outside the box that failed to even find the target.

Ards had most of the possession but all they managed to turn that into was a trio of corners around 16 minutes that yielded little.

A blow for Killyleagh was delivered around 35 minutes when John Murray fell awkwardly in the Ards half. He had to be stretchered off and later left in an ambulance with a suspected broken leg.

The final chance of the half came with three minutes to play when Aaron McKee slipped a pass through for Fitzgerald on the left side of the area. The Ards striker had just the goalkeeper to beat but struck a cross-shot directly at him.

Things picked up a bit in the second half, although a flurry of goals looked as far away as ever. On 51 minutes Mark Picking put a cross into the box from the right side for Fitzgerald to head just wide. Shortly after Wright and Pike worked a short corner for Ards that was plucked just off the head of James Wilson by the goalkeeper.

Truthfully it was a lack of decent balls into the box that was undoing Ards, although even when a cross did arrive the finishing was often suspect too. A 68th minute ball into the area from Picking found Stephen Doyle excellently placed but he got underneath the ball rather than over it and sent a header high over the bar.

Ards' Jimmy McIlhagga was denied a score with his head on 78 minutes as the goalkeeper moved across his net to save and from the following corner Wilson put a free header wide of the target. There was little threat at all from Killyleagh around this stage with only an 84th breakaway that culminated in Jon Munn stopping a low shot from the No.14 anything close to a chance.

Thankfully the option of extra-time was dismissed and the sides lined up for spot kicks. Killyleagh missed their first kick and Munn saved the second, with Wright and McKee converting for Ards. Killyleagh kept it interesting by scoring either side of Sammy Divine's successful take but when Fitzgerald hit home Ards' fourth kick, his side had the shoot-out by four to two.

Penalty scorers James Wright, Aaron McKee, Sammy Devine, Darren Fitzgerald

Ards Team 1 Jon Munn, 14, Matty Neill, 2 Darren Nixon, 4 Gary Spence, 3 Kris Pike, 8 Mark Picking, 16 James Wright, 7 Jimmy McIlhagga, 11 Aaron McKee, 9 Stephen Doyle, 10 Darren Fitzgerald

Substitutes 5 James Wilson (for Neill h/t), 15 Sammy Devine (for Spence 66), 20 Mark McQuillan (for McIlhagga h/t), GK Sammy Maxwell

Referee Evan Boyce

22nd July 2010