Rossvale lose unbeaten home record to leaders Benburb

A goal three minutes from time by Championship leaders Benburb sent Rossvale crashing to their first home defeat of the season.
Benburb got the win over Rossvale in difficult conditions at Huntershill (pic by HT Photography/@dibsy_)Benburb got the win over Rossvale in difficult conditions at Huntershill (pic by HT Photography/@dibsy_)
Benburb got the win over Rossvale in difficult conditions at Huntershill (pic by HT Photography/@dibsy_)

Conditions were difficult at a wet and wild Huntershill and stalemate looked on the cards until the visitors dealt a blow to Vale’s promotion hopes with a late winner.

The game started evenly enough and Vale were the first to threaten on 10 minutes with a long ball from Jamie Donnelly finding Gary Giffin who brought out a good save from Ryan McWilliams.

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Five minutes later another long ball from Giffin found Liam McGonigle six yards out but his effort was cleared.

Then, on the half hour mark, Giffin found himself through on goal but again his effort was cleared by the Bens defence.

With the rain getting heavier the game was going from end to end but with each team blocking the other out.

Vale may have felt they should have gone in ahead at half-time as the visitors hadn’t really tested Donnelly much in the first half.

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Bens came out more determined in the second half, but despite all the work they put into their attack they could just not break down the Vale defence.

Again ‘Vale came closest when Andy Johnstone and Chris Duff worked well together and the latter’s shot brought out an excellent diving save from McWilliams.

Ex-‘Vale player Scott Jarvie was very unlucky when he beat two defenders in the box and had only Donnelly to beat, but his shot was brilliantly saved by the big keeper.

Next Ryan Livingston tried an effort from 30 yards which crashed off Donnelly’s crossbar with the keeper well beaten.

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Both teams continued to cancel each other out and it looked as if the match was going to finish all square.

But Bens then got a series of corners and with only three minutes to go Josh Meechan lost his marker to bullet home an excellent header into the far side of the goals with Donnelly well beaten and with no chance to getting to it.