McGibbon is aiming for semi berth
CONFIDENT: Newry City boss Pat McGibbon
Newry City boss Pat McGibbon reached his target of an Irish Cup quarter-final spot after watching his side hit Ballymoney United for six on Saturday.
A Marty Haven hat-trick, backed up with a brace from Stephen Hughes and a Timmy Grant strike earned a deserved 6-1 victory at the Riada Stadium.
Reflecting on the Newry performance, McGibbon said: “We achieved what we set out (to do).
“I spoke before the Sport & Leisure game, which was the first game we played in the Irish Cup, and what I said to them was I believed that the lads are good enough to reach the quarters and maybe even the semis if we got the right draws.
“And up until now we’ve got draws and we’ve beat the teams that were put ahead of us.
“So the next one is to see where the draw takes us this evening.”
That draw resulted in a home tie against Ballymena United and McGibbon will feel confident a semi-final berth is within his grasp after a masterclass in finishing.
“We’ve quality going forward throughout the team and Marty Haveron scored a hat-trick there today, but Darragh Hanaphy is well up there in the charts in the Championship,” he added.
“We’ve got Timmy Grant, Stephen Hughes, we’ve got loads of options going forward.
“It was obviously a terrific result. We put ourselves on the front foot straight away and we scored two goals.
“Even after that we probably could have scored another two and could have been 4-0 up.
“But then we sort of slipped away a wee bit and let them back into the game at 2-1 and then you come in at half-time and then the next goal is all-important and we explained that.”
No United player got on the scoresheet as Paul Donegan put the ball into his own net on 33 minutes.
Ballymoney manager Paul Gaston, who won the cup while playing for Coleraine in 2003, said: “I’m disappointed but the boys did well to get this far.
“Fair play to Pat he’s doing a good job down there and they deserved to win the game.
“But you can’t just give goals away and expect to win matches the way we did.
“The manner that we did was unacceptable. If you want to get to the next level, we are only in Division 2, if you want to get to that next level you will get punished.
“We got punished today for it.”
Ballymoney: Moore, McKane, Buckley, Wilkinson, Getty, Gilmour, McKenna, Kearney, Gillan, Gillan, Christie.
Subs: Fleming, Scott, Dempsey, Laverty, Surgenor.
Newry City: Buchanan, King, McCabe, Copeland, Donegan, Tierney, Hughes, Grant, Hanaphy, Haveron, Devlin.
Subs: Hand, Masterson, Hughes, Hutchinson, Freeman.
Referee: Arnold Hunter (Maguiresbridge)
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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