Six goals and a brilliant display in Milltown

A 6-1 victory sealed a brilliant day at the office for Warrenpoint Town on Saturday, with a superb display against Lisburn Distillery.

The Point looked the better side from start to finish and in the first half were rewarded for their efforts when Jim O'Hanlon scored the opening goal just before the break.

Before that, there were numerous chances for the home side with Danny Devine not bothered too much in the Warrenpoint goal.

Gary Boyle's men doubled their lead straight after the restart with Diarmuid O'Hanlon on target, and despite Lisburn pulling one back immediately from a well-taken Kyle Flynn free kick moments later, the Point didn't let that become a turning point and more than matched their fast, physical opponents.

The entertaining game was played with pace throughout but once Michael Leddy scored from the penalty spot on the hour mark and the same player struck again from play on 70 minutes, the Point were home and dry and played with freedom and imagination. The bench were also immense, with Eoghan Byrne and Rory Powell combining as soon as the duo were introduced, the latter denied a scoring opportunity with an incorrect offside call. It mattered little in the end however, as Christopher Crane made it 5-1 with five minutes left on the clock and Tony Tumelty came on and, set up well by Byrne, scored an absolute cracker to put the icing on the cake.

“It was a really, really pleasing performance,” said delighted Point manager Boyle after the win.

“I thought the first half was competitive and I thought if we'd shown a wee bit more composure that we could get in, and we reiterated that to the players at half time. We asked them to enjoy getting after the opposition which we did in abundance in the second half. I thought we were really good and really fluid in attack which is something that we probably parked after the last game to try to really work at. I thought we were stagnated in the last game but we're really pleased with elements of the performance today.”

Despite the brilliant result, Warrenpoint didn't manage a clean sheet and Boyle agrees that the players switched off somewhat after scoring to go two up.

“It's something that we talk about. You're probably at your most vulnerable after you score. So, while it was a great strike from the lad, we feel as if we could have done better and shouldn't certainly be conceding straight after we score. But again, it showed a different element to our performance, where we were able to regroup quickly and get after them again and score a couple of more goals after that.”

The subs were hugely instrumental in those, with the aforementioned offside decision costing Powell potentially another goal.

“Thankfully we're not talking about a decision that affected the outcome of the game but the impact on the team was super from the lads who came on and that's what we've talked about – guys coming on with that freshness when the game perhaps opens up slightly and they're able to use their attributes in terms of that pace and power and quality. And I felt that we were really able to do that and credit to the lads for making that impact from the bench.”

Warrenpoint have another week off before their next league game away to Moyola Park but while the manager agrees the wait is frustrating with momentum like this, he also admits that it's of their own making.

“If we had performed like that in previous cup matches we probably would have had a game next week, so we have to take accountability for that,” he said.

"While it's not ideal, we have to build and go again. We regrouped after the last game that we had, we had a really good two weeks and we aim to do that again before we go away to Moyola which will be another difficult game.”

MATCH STATS

Warrenpoint Town: Danny Devine, Conall Murray, Chris Crane, John Boyle (Ben Walker 81), Matty Lynch (Rory Powell 67), Jim O'Hanlon, Diarmuid O'Hanlon (Sean O'Hare 81), Shane Haughey, Matty Robinson, Decky Loye (Eoghan Byrne 67), Michael Leddy (Tony Tumelty 86)

Subs not used: Declan Murphy, Caolan Flanagan

Lisburn Distillery: Lorcan Donnelly, Dean Lewis, Dylan Whiteway, Josh Lynch, Aaron Lochran, Kyle Flynn (Sam Morrell 81), Gary Warwick (Josh Stewart 65), Justin Gratton, Jonathan Angus, Jack Kinner, Matthew Hanna

Subs not used: Jody Newell, Brendan Glackin, Adam McCart

Referee: Conor Murphy