Crumlin Star 8-1 Kilroot Rec

The Star are through to their first ever Border Cup semi final where they'll meet County Down outfit Newcastle. It was literally a game of two halves at Solitude on Friday night as a resounding second half performance finally disposed of a suborn Kilroot side. The first half was a pretty even contest as both sides where keen on giving little away but out of nowhere the Star took an early lead when Conor McDowell broke down the right flank and after running the length of the pitch and a brilliant one two with Paul Brown he broke into the box to put the Star into the lead with his first goal for the club. The star then went 2-0 up midway through the half after a great cross from Barry McKervey was finished of by Paul Brown with the help of his elbow and to the horror of the Kilroot defence the goal was given by the unassuming referee. Kilroot responded well and after going close on several occasions they finally got a deserved goal back when their impressive striker turned Berne inside the area and finished well to half the deficit.
H/T 2-1
The second half was a complete one sided affair as the Star totally outplayed Kilroot from start to finish. PJ O'Neill headed the Star into a 3-1 lead just after the restart but the goal was all down to Joe McNeill as his strength, power and determination seen him leave three Kilroot players in his wake and put the ball on a plate for O'Neill to score. Paul Brown then made it 4-1 on the hour with another back post header from a Ciaran Murphy cross. With the Kilroot's players heads all down the Star showed no mercy as O'Neill then got his second of the night when he headed the Star into a 5-1 lead. Substitute Sean Brown made it 6-1 when he curled an absolute gem into the top corner from 25 yards out to add to his collection of wonder strikes for the club. To rub salt into the wound the Star scored another two wonder goals late on when Barry McKervey and Francie Murphy both scored cheeky chips that embarrassed the Kilroot number one. Firstly Murphy Broke clear on goal and brilliantly scooped the ball over the keepers head Karel Porborski style and not to be out done McKervey then did the same thing in the dying seconds to make it a resounding 8-1 win for the Ardoyne side.

Next week the Star are home to Rathfriland Rangers in a league fixture at Solitude, Kick Off 2:00pm.

Team: Thompson (7) McDowell (8) Berne (6) Burns (7) Savage (7) F.Murphy (6) McNeill (7) McKervey (7) C.Murphy (7) P.Brown (7) O'Neill (8)
Subs: S.Brown (7) O'Reilly (6) Mooney (6)

Conor McDowell scored his first goal for the club against Kilroot