{"id":24281,"date":"2017-05-10T18:30:23","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T17:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/?p=24281"},"modified":"2017-05-10T09:39:10","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T08:39:10","slug":"danske-bank-premiership-glenavon-ballymena-face-off-europa-league-playoff-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/danske-bank-premiership-glenavon-ballymena-face-off-europa-league-playoff-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Danske Bank Premiership: Glenavon and Ballymena to face off in Europa League playoff final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you were expecting the semi-finals of the Europa League playoff to be dull and timid displays then you would have been very wrong! The two matches offered up 15 goals in 180 minutes of football as Glenavon overcame Cliftonville and Ballymena United defeated Dungannon Swifts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cliftonville 3-5 Glenavon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cliftonville had the home advantage in their tie against Glenavon, on account of finishing above them in the league, but couldn\u2019t make this count as their poor league form continued.<\/p>\n<p>Glenavon took the early lead through a Rhys Marshall header before Jude Winchester\u2019s long range strike levelled things up for the Reds. Seizing on a shift in momentum, Cliftonville took the lead by way of a superb solo effort from Chris Curran. Unfortunately, the lead didn\u2019t last as the game turned again when Greg Moorhouse headed Glenavon level, the 2-2 score line lasted only two minutes as Jay Donnelly headed home to give Cliftonville the advantage again.<\/p>\n<p>After the break Glenavon surged forward and took aerial advantage yet again when James Singleton headed in the equaliser before another header was scored byJames Gray to give Glenavon the lead for the second time in the match. Andy McGrory finished the scoring by slotting home a penalty to give Glenavon the 5-3 victory \u2013 I am doubtful that the fact the fifth goal conceded wasn\u2019t a header was any consolation to the deflated Reds fans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ballymena United 5-2 Dungannon Swifts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ballymena welcomed their Dungannon counterparts to Ballymena Showgrounds thanks to finishing 4<sup>th<\/sup> in the league in comparison to Dungannon\u2019s 7<sup>th<\/sup> placed finish. Ballymena made fine work of this victory to give them confidence ahead of the final.<\/p>\n<p>Ballymena took a 3<sup>rd<\/sup> minute lead through Tony Kane who has proven to be somewhat of a hot shot for them this season, a fortunate bounce helped the ball evade Stuart Addis in the Ballymena goal. Just two minutes later Dungannon were reduced to ten men as Andrew Burns was issued a straight red card for a dangerous tackle. Ballymena doubled their lead through a fine Joe McKinney finish before adding another via a Tony Kane penalty \u2013 his 20<sup>th<\/sup> goal of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Just after the hour mark Dungannon pulled themselves back into sight of the match with a well hit Kris Lowe shot that Ross Glendinning couldn\u2019t keep out. The hope didn\u2019t last long though as Johnny McMurray restored Ballymena\u2019s three goal advantage after a neat breakaway behind the Dungannon defence. Dungannon managed to score a second through a well-directed Jamie Glackin finish before Kyle Owens put the result beyond doubt by heading in Ballymena\u2019s fifth goal from a corner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ballymena United v Glenavon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ballymena and Glenavon will fight it out in the final for the final Europa League spot. The match will take place on Friday 12<sup>th<\/sup> May at 19:45 at the Ballymena Showgrounds \u2013 the venue decided by which team finished higher in the regular league season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you were expecting the semi-finals of the Europa League playoff to be dull and timid displays then you would have been very wrong! The two matches offered up 15 goals in 180 minutes of football as Glenavon overcame Cliftonville and Ballymena United defeated Dungannon Swifts. Cliftonville 3-5 Glenavon Cliftonville had the home advantage in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":22858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[711],"tags":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Danske Bank Premiership: Glenavon and Ballymena to face off in Europa League playoff final<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/danske-bank-premiership-glenavon-ballymena-face-off-europa-league-playoff-final\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Danske Bank Premiership: Glenavon and Ballymena to face off in Europa League playoff final\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you were expecting the semi-finals of the Europa League playoff to be dull and timid displays then you would have been very wrong! 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Cliftonville 3-5 Glenavon Cliftonville had the home advantage in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/danske-bank-premiership-glenavon-ballymena-face-off-europa-league-playoff-final\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"By Far The Greatest Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/By-Far-The-Greatest-Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-10T17:30:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-10T08:39:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/northern-ireland.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt McKay\" \/>\n<meta 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