Second half goals send Rangers to Junior Cup glory

Second-half goals helped Enniskillen Rangers to a fourth fonaCAB Irish Junior Cup title in seven years.

Rangers dominated proceedings at Stangmore Park, Dungannon on Friday evening but failed to find a breakthrough goal until the 71st minute against the Newry side.

The first half saw Cleary start in a positive fashion with the movement of striker Declan Monaghan causing some headaches.

And he should have opened the scoring when a ball over the top put him through on goal but his lob of Joel Peden did not have enough on it and the Rangers defence were able to get back and clear the ball.

From then on, Rangers took over as their fitness levels, passing and movement caused all sorts of problems for Cleary.

But despite this, they could not find the net.

Jake Browne had a couple of chances as did Stuart Rainey.

The best chances of the half for Rangers fell to Jason Keenan and Mark Cutler.

A nice layoff from Keenan teed Cutler up but the winger, who had scored in every round of the Junior Cup before the final, fired high and wide.

Keenan was hesitant when in good positions inside the box and it allowed Cleary defenders to get in the way and clear the danger.

The Rangers defence did have to scramble at times to snuff out Cleary attacks as the half ended scoreless.

The start of the second half saw Cleary play with more intent and were lively in the early stages.

Monaghan, again with his smart runs between defenders, was causing headaches.

He fired straight at Peden and then had a volley flash across the Rangers goal.

Rangers began to come more into it and stamp their authority again.

And with the introduction of Joel Byrne and Willie Burleigh, Rangers started to control matters once more.

Byrne's trickery and Burleigh's experience were to the fore.

And it was Burleigh, who led Rangers to three Junior Cups as captain, broke the deadlock on 71 minutes.

Cleary tried to bring the ball out of their half, but a good challenge from Player of the Match, Nathan Khan, snuffed it out.

He played the ball wide to Cutler whose cross was finished by Burleigh much to the delight of the large Rangers support.

Byrne then had a shot turned past the post by the Cleary Celtic keeper before the Rangers lead was doubled.

A free kick from Khan was nodded down by Eoin McManus and Keenan was on hand to apply the finish to the net on 77 minutes.

Over the closing stages, Rangers were able to kill the game with Cleary not threatening Peden's goals again and it ended 2-0 and set off ecstatic celebrations from the Rangers players and supporters.