Ryan McNickle gets Newry City out of a pickle with dramatic late winner against Warrenpoint Town

Newry City’s summer signing Ryan McNickle continued his great run of form tonight, as he netted a dramatic winner on 115 minutes to see his side defeat neighbours Warrenpoint Town in the Mid Ulster Cup.

There is usually not much to hide between teams in a local derby, but this was especially true in this fixture as 10 of Newry’s 18 man squad represented Warrenpoint at some stage of their career – as of course, did their manager Barry Gray.

For Town boss Gary Boyle, it would have been unusual coming out of the tunnel and going to the away dugout and not the home one, as he spent many years at Newry City as both a coach and as manager.

Both sides had an early chance apiece with Rory Powell meeting Michael Leddy’s cross but poking his shot wide, before Newry’s Gavin Smith saw his headed effort saved by Daniel Devine.

On the balance of play, Warrenpoint looked the more likely to open the scoring, but it was Newry who were presented with a golden chance when Jordan Mooney put Adam Carroll clean through on goal and he was brought down inside the box by Devine.

However, the goalkeeper atoned for his error, as he got down and saved Carroll’s low effort.

Carroll was involved again a moment later when his dangerous cross nearly forced defender Christopher Crane into scoring an own goal, but luckily for him the ball hit the underside of the crossbar and rebounded out.

Then, Conall Murray almost scored a wonder strike for the visitors with an effort from 35 yards out, but Oisin McStay pulled off a brilliant save and tipped the ball over the bar.

At the other end, Newry made the breakthrough on 41 minutes when Georgie Poynton played a slide rule pass into the box for Carroll, he took one touch and fired his effort into the roof of the net. He then let the Warrenpoint fans behind the goal know all about it – cupping his ears in celebration.

But it was the point fans who were doing all the celebrating two minutes later. Carroll’s goal was good, but Warrenpoint’s response was out of this world. Rory Powell’s deep free was headed into the sky and Crane showed tremendous athleticism to loop and overhead kick over McStay and into the far corner to level matters at 1-1 on the stroke of half-time.

The first 45 minutes were evenly balanced, but Newry totally dominated after the break – doing everything but finding a winning goal.

Carroll had the first half chance of the second half, but he blazed over with a powerful shot from just inside the box with his final touch before being replaced by Ryan McNickle.

With 10 minutes to go, centre back Alex O’Brien was afforded acres of space 30 yards from goal and he tried his luck. Devine was beaten, but unfortunately for City the ball smashed off the post and came back out.

Moments later, Noel Healy decided to have a go from range, but his shot flew just over the bar. Then, Steven Ball stormed down the left wing, cut inside and supplied Donal Scullion, but with only a half yard of space to get his shot off, Scullion’s shot drifted wide of the post.

Two ex-Warrenpoint players almost broke their former team’s hearts in the last minute as a Fra McCaffrey cross found Ball at the back post. However, he didn’t quite catch his volleyed effort and it was saved.

Newry had three separate penalty shouts in stoppage time as Oisin Coleman, McCaffrey and McNickle all went down under challenges from Crane, but referee Mark Dillon saw things differently on each occasion and into extra-time the game went.

The first chance of extra-time came when Newry launched a counter attack and had a 2v1 situation, but Warrenpoint’s Aaron Corish cleverly defended the threat of McNickle and Scullion, getting across to make a challenge on Newry’s number 33.

Corish was the hero for the point again moments later as he cleared a Donal Scullion header off the line.

On 115 minutes, Ball drove down the left wing and played a low cross into the box. Point keeper Devine got a hand to it, but could only lay the ball on a plate for McNickle to score the winner from close range, sending the Shed End fans into delirium.

MATCH STATS

Newry City: Oisin McStay, Gavin Smith, Ciaran O’Connor (Donal Scullion 78), Alex O’Brien, Adam Carroll (Ryan McNickle 64), Seanna Foster, Jordan Mooney (Fra McCaffrey 64), Georgie Poynton (Stephen Moan 109), Oisin Coleman, Dualta Honney (Steven Ball 78), Evan McEnteggart (Noel Healy 49).

Unused subs: Conor Mitchell. Warrenpoint Town: Daniel Devine, Aaron Corish (Kofi Halliday 112), Conall Murray, Christopher Crane, Rory Powell, Shane Haughey (Eoghan Byrne 83), Matthew Robinson (Seamus McNulty 97), Ciaran O’Reilly, Declan Loye (Tony Tumelty 64), Ben Walker, Michael Leddy.

Unused subs: Louis McKeown, Declan Murphy, Stephen Reid.

Referee: Mark Dillon.