Cosmos edged out in play-off decider

A week after missing out on the Meath & District League Div 1 title Navan Cosmos suffered more heartache when they lost out to Glaslough Villa in this promotion/relegation play-off. The crucial goal was scored just before the interval and while Cosmos tried hard to carve out an equaliser they were unable to find a way through. Navan Cosmos - D Ratty; D McGovern, M Nicholls, W Murtagh, M Rogers, I Reilly, J McDonagh, D Coogan, D Lambe, S Ivers, L Ivers. Subs - K Walsh for Rogers, W Smyth for Lambe, S Conaty for L Ivers. Navan Cosmos have been invited to participate in a four-team tournament in Glasgow this coming weekend at the home of local club Whitletts Victory FC from the Ayrshire League. Also taking part in the tournament are Chryston FC from Glasgow and English side Ryburn Utd from Halifax. Cosmos have travelled to play Ryburn for over 10 years while during that time the Halifax side has also made their way to Navan. Parkvilla 2 Oldcastle Utd 2 Parkvilla 4-2 penalties Parkvilla retained their status in the MDL Div 2 when they defeated Oldcastle although they had to go all the way to a penalty shoot-out before securing their status for another season at least. Oldcastle took an early lead, but with Patrick Connor and Rory Devlin in fine form Parkvilla fought back to equalise. John Power beat a couple of defenders and shot from outside the box. The Oldcastle goalkeeper was unable to hold the shot, the ball broke to Mark McCabe who slotted home. Within a minute Parkvilla went ahead. This time it was Power who did the finishing. Jason Gavin sent a long ball deep into the heart of the north Meath side"s defence. McCabe got a touch on the ball to knock it into the path of Power and from close range he made no mistake. Gavin was called into action on the stroke of half time when he had to tip over a close range volley but at the break it remained 2-1. Early in the second-half Power and Chris Hand had efforts rebound off the bar and post respectively while McCabe also went close. Four minutes from time Oldcastle drew level and when the sides couldn"t be separated in extra time it went to a penalty shoot-out. Parkvilla goalkeeper emerged one of his team"s heroes with two fine saves in the shoot-out. Devlin, Connors, McCabe and Colm Brady were on target for the winners. Best for the Navan side were Connors, Hand, Devlin and Jamie Blake. Parkvilla - J Gavin; C Kennedy, D Dunne, K Beckham, S Slevin, P Connors, R Devlin, C Hand, J Blake, M McCabe, J Power. Subs - C Collins for Slevin, C Brady for Blake. NECSL Johnstown 3 Trim Celtic 0 Johnson turned on the style to fire three goals past Trim Celtic in this NEC u-13 Div 1 play-off encounter at Kells. Both sides had played 16 games and everything was finely set up for this contest. There was no doubting these two teams are the strongest in the league as they shared top spot last year with Trim Celtic taking the spoils and Johnstown finishing as runners up. The sides were scoreless at the break, but Johnstown broke the deadlock in the second-half when Darren McQuillan fired the ball to the net from a free. McQuillan added a second late on with a fine individual goal and just before the end John Moran netted after a Robbie McDonnell shot had come down off the crossbar and back into play. This was a great win for Johnstown FC who only stared to field under-age teams four seasons ago. Johnstown - J Crummey; L Fahy, J McDermott, C Murphy, J Connolly, R McDonnell, J Moran, D McQuillan, J McCullagh, L Kelly, D Aloba. Subs - D Farmer, A Crowley, D Kavanagh, I Murphy, J Kenny, D Kenny, S Cummins, A Dumbal, S Noonan, C Hesnan.