Paul Owens feels Irish Cup upset is deserved reward after player sacrifice while next round draw pits brothers against each other

In what was the biggest upset of the fifth round, Owen’s side eliminated the reigning Premiership champions, who have reached the semi-finals in each of the last two seasons, after an extra-time strike from Ruairi Boorman sealed a 1-0 victory.

Limavady were only promoted back to the Championship ahead of the current campaign and are enjoying a stellar campaign, sitting second in the league and now face a trip to top-flight Crusaders in the sixth round.

"I’m obviously delighted but I think it’s a genuine reward for the players because yes we’re a part-time team playing in the Championship but there has been a real sacrifice over the Christmas period,” Owens told BBC Sportsound. “We’ve been in every two days and it’s mental fatigue even for me.

"These lads have had to sacrifice with no drink or carrying on with their families over Christmas. We’ve had a great return in the league but that reward they’ve got today...we went toe-to-toe with a full-time team.

"We didn’t sit off them, went and had a right rattle at them and even the fitness levels from us as a part-time team in extra-time...I thought in the first half of extra-time we started to gain ground and territory, we looked the fresher team and that’s massive credit to the players.

"It’s fully deserved in my opinion and I’m delighted for everyone at the club.

"The scenes at the end when that goal went in and the amount of people that are here, it’s full credit to everybody involved with the club. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.

"The crowds are starting to build and you can see the momentum building around the town...even silly things like there being jerseys up in Tesco!

"Hopefully this is a real springboard to what can be an exciting end to the season.”

The draw means the Lowry brothers – Crusaders star Philip and summer Limavady recruit Stephen – will face off at Seaview in another interesting aspect of a thrilling tie.

They’ve came up against each other before, including in 2018 when Stephen’s tackle while playing for Coleraine forced Philip off through injury – a clip which was viewed almost one million times on Soccer AM’s Facebook page and also featured on Sky Sports.

Limavady face three crunch Championship clashes before making the trip to Belfast as they take on league leaders Bangor, host third-placed Dundela and travel to Armagh City.

"My young boy sitting beside me told me it was Linfield so I don’t know who told him that!” laughed Owens. “I’m good mates with Phily Lowry so it’ll be an exciting game.

"There are three league games before that and I’ll be trying my best to get the players an extra night off this week because we’ve a big game in Bangor.

"We’ll try and enjoy this because this group has done a lot of good in winning the league...I’ve never had a scalp against a Premiership side and we were able to get the rewards today.”