NI Premiership Round up – Week 36
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With the destination of the Gibson Cup already decided after Cliftonville’s triumph, attention turned to the battle between Lisburn Distillery and Donegal Celtic to determine who will avoid automatic relegation from the top flight.
Lisburn needed a win against Ballymena United and for Dungannon to defeat Donegal Celtic to prolong, what looked to be, their inevitable drop to Championship One for another week but goals from Gary Liggett and Alan Davidson gave United the win that confirmed Distillery’s relegation.
Manager Tim McCann was sacked in the wake of the defeat and the outgoing manager was vocal in his displeasure at his dismissal, citing the gulf between the coaching staff and the board room as a major contributing factor to the club’s loss of their Premiership status.
Donegal Celtic’s 2-1 home victory over Dungannon Swifts means that they avoided the automatic relegation spot and now will face a play-off with the Championship One’s second placed side, most likely Warrenpoint Town, to decide who will play in the top tier next season.
Mark Burns headed DC's opener in the eleventh minute after Dungannon keeper Tuda Murphy had failed to cut out Kevin Keegan's corner. The west Belfast men made it 2-0 on 37 minutes as Ryan Deans did well to keep the ball in before crossing for Kevin Hughes to head home.
Dungannon's 51st-minute score came through an own goal by DC defender Pat McShane and despite some late Swifts pressure Packie McAllister’s side held on to secure the three points.
In a dress rehearsal for next month’s cup final Glentoran ran out comfortable winners over a much changed Cliftonville side that had only four starters from last week’s title winning team in their starting line-up. Nevertheless, Glentoran done their confidence before next month’s show piece the power of good as first half goals from Andrew Waterworth and a late strike from substitute Karl McComb gave them the three points that leaves them with a mathematical chance of catching their great rivals Linfield in third place.
Linfield and Coleraine played out a 1-1 draw while two Darren Murray strikes saw Portadown grab a 3-1 victory away to Glenavon.
Crusaders made sure of a second placed finish as two goals from Jordan Owens and a first half strike from Gary McCutcheon eased them to a 3-1 win over Ballinamallard United at Seaview.
