Sean O’Neill has revealed how a modest water bottle helped Ballymena United overflow with joy in Saturday’s Irish Cup quarter-final win over Larne at the Showgrounds.
The last-eight tie went to penalties after the County Antrim rivals couldn’t be separated in an entertaining and dramatic 3-3 draw after 120 minutes.
And while Caolan Loughran grabbed the headlines when he came off the bench to fire home United’s decisive penalty in a 4-3 shootout victory, O’Neill played a critical role with two crucial saves.
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The veteran keeper, who joined the Sky Blues on loan from Crusaders in January, twice dived to his right to deny Matthew Lusty and Lee Bonis.
And afterwards the 33-year-old hailed Davy Douglas, the Braid club’s performance analyst, and a water bottle for providing some inside information on Larne’s penalty takers.
“Davy doesn’t leave anything to chance and he had analysis on where the Larne players had gone with past penalties,” said O’Neill.
“We had info on their previous spot kicks written on a piece of paper which was stuck to a water bottle.
“To be honest I often just work off instinct when it comes to pens but having that additional information meant no stone was left unturned.
“I’ve been in a few shootouts before and I’ve experienced both sides of it. I won the Setanta Cup with Crusaders (in 2012) thanks to a shootout and I also lost a League Cup final to Cliftonville (in 2014) on pens.
“A lot of the time it’s a guessing game and sometimes it’s just how you feel in the moment. It was just great to come out on the right side of this one.”
Larne twice led 2-0 and 3-1 in normal time only for Ballymena to fight back with goals from Paul McElroy, David Parkhouse and Mikey Place.
O’Neill’s contribution wasn’t confined to the shootout after he produced a superb save to deny former Crues teammate Mitchell a winner in extra-time.
The Larne midfielder’s arrowed effort looked destined for the top corner, only for O’Neill to dive high to his left and palm the ball over the bar.
“It was a good save,” he said “I know Mitch from our time together at Crusaders and he has that kind of shot in his armoury.
“I had an idea what he might do and thankfully I got a good hand to it.”
When Loughran powered home the winning penalty to send Ballymena into the last four, O’Neill made a beeline for the home supporters.
“I just wanted to go to the supporters because they really galvanised us when we were 3-1 down,” he said. “Their support gave us a lift and it was great to give something back.”
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