Institute await the winners of the tie involving Kilmore Rec and north-west neighbours, Tobermore United, following victory over Rathfriland Rangers in Drumahoe.
And while it was a deserved victory over the Amateur League side, Paul Kee’s men were rattled after Rangers had battled back from a 2-0 deficit.
“We limited Rathfriland’s scoring attempts to set pieces and we had to guard against them in breakways, but I think we made hard work of it having moved into a 2-0 lead,” declared Kee.
“After they scored we needed to net a third to kill the game off and while we had chances we failed to do that, so we had to be at ourselves,” he added.
“The players kept plugging away, but it wasn’t a performance that I would be delighted with. We’ve got to learn from this as some of our lads were complacent and that can be dangerous.”
‘Stute broke the deadlock after 16 minutes. New signing, Warner Mullan, sent Michael McCrudden scampering forward and his low cross along the six yards line presented Stephen Parkhouse with a straight-forward tap-in.
And the home lot doubled their lead in the 25th minute, the Rathfriland defence struggling to clear their lines before Mullan swivelled to curl a superb shot high into the top corner.
But the Championship side shot themselves in the foot in the 31st minute when conceding a very soft goal.
With Rangers pressing, Declan Allister made room for a cross into the danger area and Alastair Wilson gleefully swept the ball home to keep his side in the match.
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