Twos get the chance to avenge Garvey’s Irish Cup defeat

That’s because they’ve been drawn at home to Cork CofI in the quarter-finals of the Irish Junior Cup - the same club who sent Garvey crashing out of the Senior competition. That game will be played at Comber Road on Saturday 14 February.

They couldn’t have set that tie up in any more convincing style, thrashing Raphoe Twos 12-0 in Donegal last Saturday.

Escaping the bad weather, Raphoe failed to provide any serious opposition for a Garvey team that hit top form on the day.

Ross Kelly opened the scoring for the visitors after just three minutes and this was quickly followed by a penalty corner variation which ended with John Gray slotting goal number two. Seconds skipper Philip Stirling added the third as his team were already threatening to run away with the cup tie even at an early stage.

Graham Bittle converted a penalty stroke for goal number four and James Dowling and Julian Stevenson scored goals five and six before Stirling completed the first half tally with number seven from a penalty corner.

Garvey were revelling in the space they were allowed and added five more goals to complete a 12-0 rout. The goals came from Mark Raphael, who is having a great influence on the team, James Dowling got two to complete his hat trick and John Gray bagged another penalty corner switch late in the game.

Meanwhile, Garvey Sixths also had a fine win last Saturday at Comber Road. They defeated Civil Service Thirds 5-0 in the first round of the Ulster Minor Cup. Always the better side in bitter conditions, they took the lead through Darryl Scott and further goals from Glenn Halliday and Andy Nye gave them a 3-0 advantage at the interval.

The second half saw the Sixths continue their domination with two more goals from Halliday and Patrick Geddis.