Senior sides take centre stage as Northend United season winds down
Stephen White’s under-17 team had two matches during the week, losing to Banbridge Town 3-2 and turning in a good 1-0 win over one of the teams in contention for League honours, Greenisland.
Elsewhere Tony Shaw’s U16s finished off their League campaign with a 5-2 defeat to Newry City.
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Hide AdTwo teams in the North West and Coleraine District league were in action this week, with a defeat for Alex McDonald’s U9s in their friendly match against Coleraine Academy.
Brian Martin’s U12s Youth were in action against Roe Valley in a Shield semi-final match but came unstuck in a robust end to end match.
The U10s travelled to the Billy Neill pitches in Dundonald on Sunday to take part in the Dungoyne Boys Kappa Cup, being organised by none other than ex-Ballymena manager Glenn Ferguson. The U10s put in some good performances on the day against some top opposition before going out on penalties in an action packed day’s football.
UNDER-12
Northend Youth 1, Roe Valley 5: Northend’s hopes of success in this PLate semi-final were dashed when they conceded three first half goals.
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Hide AdNorthend got back into the game through a penalty but Roe Valley scored twice more to go through.
Northend: G Farias, S Crawford, J Connor, N Devine, A Pescaru, B Harkin, C Martin, C O’Brien, K Dziadkowiec, C Lennon
UNDER-16
Newry City 5, Wakehurst 2: Newry took the lead against the run of play, but it wasn’t long before James O’Loughlin had ‘Hurst’ level with a good finish at the back post. Newry hit Wakehurst with two quick goals to give them the advantage going into the second half.
In the second half, Matthew Kirk brought Wakehurst back into the match with an acrobatic lob from an acute angle but two goals in quick succession put the match beyond the Ballymena boys who also missed a chance to score a third when Jamie Houston saw his penalty saved.
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Hide AdWakehurst: A Shaw, B Millar, D Dobbin, J Houston, J Penny, R Laverty, A Campbell, J O’Loughlin, J Fleming, T Barr, M Erwin, M Kirk
UNDER-17
Greenisland 0, Wakehurst 1: The U17s continued their good run-in to the end of the season with a well deserved win over Greenisland.
The decisive goal came in the second half when Cameron Neilly was brought down in the penlaty area. Up stepped Sam Bennett to plant the ball past the helpless Greenisland keeper
Greenisland’s best chance of the game fell to their No 10 after twenty-five minutes of the half when he eventually managed to get past the Wakehurst defence but Jamie Stevenson pulled off a top class save to keep the Ballymena boys ahead in the game.
Wakehurst: J Stevenson, L McAllister, J Lowry, J Timms, M Waide, T Campbell(c), J Anderson, J Dawson, C Neilly, S Bennett, A Milligan, D Leetch, M Cochrane, O Dick.