Irvinestown Wanderers 1 Beragh Swifts 2 Beragh Swifts are through to the semi-final of the Mulhern Cup after a narrow 2-1 victory over Irvinestown Wanderers on Saturday.

Goal from Stephen Browne and Colin Adams were enough to secure a place in the last four, with a late Irvinestown goal from Joey Maguire not enough to keep Wanderers’ cup hopes alive.

In a closely contested match it was a day of frustration for Irvinestown, who failed to take their early opportunities and then could not capitalise on a second half numerical advantage when Beragh were reduced to ten men.

“It was disappointing. We thought we could have got a result but it just wasn’t to be on the day,” said Wanderer’s manager Rory Cassidy.

“We played very well for the opening half an hour and when we didn’t score in that spell it hurt us, and we ended up conceding a bad goal a few minutes before half time.

“Then we were chasing the game. They went down to ten men and it didn’t really help us in the end. There was no space in behind them after that, which is where we were very effective for the first half hour of the game.

“They were camping in their own half but they caught us with a sucker punch to score a second.

“In hindsight we probably pushed on too much and lost our shape a bit, and they caught us on the break. We got it back to 2-1 with nine minutes left and I still fancied us to get an equaliser but we struggled to create anything of note.”

Beragh manager Keith Hamilton was relieved to get the win, and admitted it was a game they could have lost.

“They started off better than us. We rode our luck and we were glad to get through,” he said.

“It was a tough game and we set out not to concede early on, but they really came at us and they were unlucky. It took us 15 or 20 minutes to get into our stride and they could have taken a chance or two but we grew into it as the half went on.

“When we went down to ten men we were there for the taking but we set our stall out and played to the one big man up front, and to be honest they didn’t cause us a lot of problems.

“They had a lot of the ball but we maybe had a bit more experience and we were able to control it and manage the game. We were delighted to get over the line.”

Irvinestown felt they had made a great start when Joey Millar was bundled over inside the penalty area inside the first two minutes, but the referee ignored their penalty claims.

Five minutes later Millar raced through on goal and was brought down just outside the box by the keeper.

Gary Maguire fired the loose ball into the net, but the referee had already pulled play back for the free kick.

They were made to pay for not taking their chances when Swifts went ahead three minutes before the half time interval through a close range finish from Colin Adams.

Wanderers looked to have been handed a great chance to get back in contention when Swifts captain Nigel Humphries received a second yellow card, but they were unable to make their advantage count and it was Swifts who scored the second when Stephen Browne broke away to score.

A goal nine minutes from time from Joey Millar gave Irvinestown hope of a comeback but they could not force an equaliser and it is Beragh Swifts who take their place in the semi-final draw.