This was the opening game in the Colleges and Universities Football League (CUFL). Queen's included 4 freshers, Craig Ramsey (Glebe Rgrs), Philip Lowry (Institute), Tony Tumelty (Bangor) and Paddy Donnelly (Glentoran), in the squad.
Queen's got off to a dream start after 7 minutes when Conor Wilkinson was in the right place to fire home from close range after Connor Mulholland's shot was blocked. The lead was short lived, Letterkenny equalising from a good right wing cross was turned into his own net by Odhran Lenaghan. Half way through the first half Letterkenny took the lead. A long diagonal cross from the left wing found Bonner unmarked at the far post and he easily beat Queen's keeper Peter Mallett. Letterkenny were on top and caused many problems down the wings until Neil Evans changed the formation to 4 at the back.
At half time Neil Evans introduced Gavin Smartt for Benji Ward but Letterkenny continued on top and sould have extended their lead but were denied by some good saves by Mallett. As time wore on Queen's improved dramatically and laid seige to the Letterkenny goal for the last 20 mins. Queen's thought they had equalised when Gavin Smartt's cross from the goal line was turned into the net but the linesman's flagged to indicate that the ball was out of play before the cross. This looked a dubious decision. Kevin Briggs shot hit the woodwork as Queen's continued to press but just couldn't get what would have been a deserved equaliser.
With just 3 games in the group, Queen's probably have to win their 2 remaining matches to make the quarter-finals, starting with a home game against U.U.J. next Wednesday.
Teams: -
Queen's:
P. Mallett, C. Ramsey, P. Prenter, P. Donnelly, P. Lowry, M. Prenter, B. Ward, O. Lenaghan, K. Briggs, C. Wilkinson, C. Mulholland
Subs: G. Smartt, R. Murphy, T. Tumelty.