Magnificent Maiden City complete the treble!

Strabane 2

Maiden City 3

Maiden City completed an unbelievable treble by defeating Strabane to win the NIIL Challenge Cup on Tuesday evening.

Colm Cassidy’s team, having already gone through an undefeated league campaign o win their first Intermediate title, had also won the League Cup and went into this week’s final with Strabane confident that they could add another trophy to a growing list.

They were made to work for it however by a hard-working Strabane team who were also their closest competitors in the league.

Strabane really took the game to Maiden City and made life difficult with striker Fionn Faherty causing problems with his strong running.

City struggled to deal with the Strabane pressure but they still managed to go ahead against the run of play when the dangerous Johnny Robb latched onto a through ball from Lewis Dallas to score past Jack Boggs.

Strabane responded well and equalised through Faherty, and Maiden City had their goalkeeper and captain Ray Kelly to thank for keeping them in the game until half time with a number of important saves.

The second half with Maiden City much more composed, but they still fell behind for the first time in the game when Faherty outpaced the defence to slit past Kelly and put the Tyrone men in front.

City got a lifeline with just 15 minutes remaining when another through ball from the effective Dallas was picked up by Dylan Mooney who was fouled just inside the area to earn his team a penalty. Robb cooly dispatched the spot-kick to level the game at 2-2.

The game was there for the taking and within minutes Dallas scored what proved to be the winner after good work from McCaul and Robb; the midfielder’s quick-fire shot went in off the post to put Maiden City 3-2 ahead with just minutes remaining.