Maguiresbridge 0 St. Teresa's 3

Maguiresbridge were eliminated in the first round of the Irish Junior Cup following a 3-0 defeat at home to Belfast side St Teresas.

The Fermanagh side were well in contention as the game reached half time goalless, but three goals from the visitors in the second half sealed Maguiresbridge’s fate.

‘Bridge manager Simon McCusker admitted that his team were second best on the day, and did not create enough chances in front of goal to give themselves a chance of victory.

“We were slow to get going the whole day, even during the warm up, and it just wasn’t good enough,” he conceded.

“There was nothing in it in the first half.

“There weren’t that many chances at either end, but they scored after about an hour and our heads went down a wee bit.

“We only had two or three chances the whole game, and they weren’t even great chances.

“We can concentrate on the league now, as they say.

“That has always been our main priority anyway and we have to get back to basics and get a few boys back and make sure we are up for it when we get back in action.

“We will move on and not dwell on it.”

Maguiresbridge went into the cup tie without three of their more influential players.

Tommy McDonald was suspended, and Adam Chartres and Niall Moran were both unavailable, and as a result there was little attacking threat from the home team in the opening 45 minutes.

In a tight first half that was lacking in goal mouth incident Maguiresbridge’s best chance came from a free kick, but Conor Durnien’s effort was comfortably gathered by the goal keeper.

The game turned in favour of St Teresas an hour into the contest when striker PJ Meehan fired in the opening goal.

The same player then added a second ten minutes later, and on 80 minutes he sealed the victory and completed his hat-trick when he ran through on the Maguiresbridge goal and slotted past the keeper while the home team appealed in vain for offside. [