BANGOR FC Ladies goalkeeper Lucy Winton insists the Seasiders are ready to bounce back and go again as they look to spring an upset in the IFA Women’s Challenge Cup tomorrow night.
The Seasiders saw their winning run in the NIWFA Championship halted at four games last Wednesday night, but a goalless draw at home to Ballymena United Women keeps their unbeaten run alive going into a tricky Irish Cup Second Round clash.
Rory Hamill’s side face Sports Direct Women’s Premiership opposition in the form of Derry City Women at the Foyle Arena (7.30pm) and will be firm underdogs in the north west.
But Bangor have enjoyed strong runs in the Irish Cup in recent times, with the highlight being when they reached the quarter-finals in 2024 – a run that was ironically ended by Derry, who were 3-0 winners in the sides’ last-eight encounter at Clandeboye Park.
The Yellows will equal that performance if they upset the odds against the sixth-placed side in the women’s top-flight tomorrow, and Winton expects the squad to pull together as they target a swift return to winning ways.
The former Ballymena and Lisburn Ladies shot-stopper took pride in a clean sheet against the Sky Blues, though also admitted a win would have made things even sweeter.
However, she believes Bangor have what it takes to shock the Candystripes and rekindle the scoring form that saw them net 18 goals across the four victories that preceded last week’s stalemate.
“It was definitely a game of two halves against Ballymena – in the first half, it took us a while to get sorted and to go in 0-0 at half-time was disappointing for us,” Winton reflected.
“Second half, we definitely stepped it up, but we weren’t able to break them down and it ended the way it did with a draw, but to get a clean sheet was good – defensively, we worked well.
“I was happy with the clean sheet, three points would’ve been a lot nicer but it’s something we’ll work on and to keep a clean sheet for me personally is really good.
“Defensively, as a goalkeeper, you trust your centre-backs and today that definitely was the case.
“Going forward, it was just one of those days – scoring six goals against Ballymoney and then coming here and not having any is difficult on the attackers.
“But we all push each other and keep our heads up and we’ve got Derry City in the cup next up, we’re going in as the underdogs but hopefully we can go there and surprise them.
“We’ll take the five games unbeaten and I’ll take the clean sheet personally, but we’ll move on – we’ll put this in the past and we’ll put our focus now into the game against Derry next Friday night.”
Neither side was ultimately able to break each other down during a rare scoreless stalemate.
It was a largely forgettable contest overall, but Bangor did have two major chances to break the deadlock in the second half.
Amber Dempster broke Ballymena’s offside trap with 54 minutes gone and caught Ballymena goalkeeper Annika Haug off her line, but the scorer of a hat-trick during the previous week’s 6-1 win over Ballymoney United Ladies watched her shot from distance fall just the wrong side of the post.
Then 14 minutes from time, this season’s top goalscorer Olivia Marshall managed to weave her way in on goal but crashed a powerful shot off the underside of the crossbar, with the ball bouncing away from the net rather than into it.
The majority of Ballymena’s opportunities came from set-pieces, with Winton called upon to parry away Niamh McGaughey’s free-kick just before the hour mark before making a similar stop to deny Lauren Hill on 67 minutes.
The deadlock remained unbroken until the finish, and while first-team coach Marty Hunter admitted it wasn’t a vintage Bangor display, he felt the hosts were the more likely to win it.
“It definitely wasn’t a classic,” said the former Glentoran and Ards midfielder. “We struggled probably in the first 10, 15 minutes, we started off with one formation and had to change it pretty quickly, it wasn’t really working for us.
“But we came back into it in the first half, created a couple of good chances; second half, we started off pretty well and we sort of fell away, we sort of lacked quality in the last third.
“We were still creating chances, but we sort of lacked that final bit of quality to put it in the net – you get nights like that, but that’s the way it is.
“The girls are gutted, we’re gutted because we think we did enough to win it. Even though we didn’t play very well, we still created four, five, six good chances.
“We’re gutted because we felt we deserved the three points tonight, but we didn’t play very well so it’s sort of bittersweet.
“We played some really good football in patches, but it just wasn’t consistent enough to sort of play through Ballymena, who worked really hard as well – they battle, they get in and they make it difficult for you.
“They’ve came away with a point, we’ll take the point and we’ll move on to the next game.”
Following tomorrow’s game, Bangor are in cup action again just three days later when they entertain Greenisland Women for their first involvement in the MFC Super Cup this season.
The Second Round encounter at Clandeboye Park on Monday, July 20 has a 7.30pm kick-off.
