It took Richard Clarke’s late ,late goal for Newry City to take a lead into the second-leg of this quarter final tie after Loughgall pushed them all the way in a game littered with mistakes.

Mattie Burrows didn’t waste any time in proving just why he is so highly rated as it took him just three minutes to open the scoring.

Ryan Moffett played what looked like a harmless ball in from the left, Ross Black inexplicably let is bounce over his head and Burrows volley edinto the bottom corner.

With Newry so slow out of the starting blocks, the visitors could and probably should have scored a second after just nine minutes.

However, Lukasz Adamzcyk was denied by a brilliant reflex stop from Paul Murphy .

That seemed to waken Newry out of their slumber and after Loughgall goalkeeper Marc Robinson should have been red carded for fouling Chris Morgan outside the box as he was about to shoot, City drew level on 19 minutes.

Steven Ferguson whipped in a corner from the left and Cullen Feeney rose highest to nod the ball home.

On 32 minutes, City took the lead. Stephen Garrett was adjudged to have been fouled by Alan Murphy and after the visitors defence cleared Morgan’s shot off the line, Black pounced to send the ball into the bottom right corner for his first goal in a Newry shirt.

After Adair had forced Murphy into his second outstanding save of the night, the visitors levelled after Neil Alderdice bundled the ball over the line on 72 minutes.

However, Clarke showed why he is so highly valued at Newry with a strong run and shot with his left foot that saw City get the win on the night that they scarcely deserved.

Newry City: Murphy, Donegan, Black, C.Feeney (King 63), Curran, Clarke, Garrett, Collins (Walsh 63), Morgan, Ferguson, Keegan. Subs: Doherty, Havern, Gowdy, Walsh.

Loughgall: Robinson, Smith, Pentland (Waddell 72), Alderdice, Murphy, Herron, Moffett, Adair, Burrows, Adamczyk, Hyndes (Lavery 63). Subs: Hawthorne, Barron, Brown.

Referee: David Malcolm (Bangor).