Mixed fortunes for youths

The Under 10’s drew 3-3 with Ballycastle, while the under 14’s, 15’s and 19’s all lost to Maiden City, Linfield and Dungannon Swifts Youth respectively. This Saturday the Under 10’s face Dungiven at Ballysally (KO 10.30am); Under 14’s have a home game against Lisburn Youth and the Under 15’s face Dungoyne at Wilton Park (KO 11am). Institute U13...7 Cookstown U13...1 The Under 13’s reshuffled the pack to push Eugene Burns up front, Eoin McMullan went into midfield, Ben Spratt to the right wing and Paul Dougherty to right back and the team played some great football to get their biggest win of the season. ’Stute’s first attack came in the first minute with a ball played into the channel between the Cookstown left back and centre half only for the ball to be cut out. On the third minute Greg Montgomery hit a great left footed shot from 20 yards which the Cookstown keeper did well to tip out for a corner on his left. Next Eugene Burns turned the ball wide from a well taken Ben Spratt corner. From a Spratt throw Eoin McMullan’s goal bound shot was put out by the Cookstown centre half for a corner. From the corner the ball Eugene Burns rolled the ball back to Montgomery who was unlucky to see the keeper save with his finger tips. Spratt got in on the act next when McMullan met a keeper kick-out to put the winger in on goal but the keeper again made the save. With their first attack of significance Cookstown scored, keeper Danny Jones raced out to the edge of his box to clear a Cookstown forward pass, but when the ball fell ’Stute failed to deal with the oncoming attacker who put the ball into the corner passed the retreating Jones. The Waterside youngsters levelled things on 13 minutes when Montgomery made no mistake riflting the ball home, after some good build up play by Eugene Burns. Eoin McMullan went close to give ’Stute the lead early in the second half but his effort was blocked, but the alert Montgomery made no mistake with the loose ball volleying home from the edge of the box. Marc McCloskey played a great through ball to Montgomery a minute later and he beat the defender to complete his hat-trick. The Institute midfield of Adam Arbuckle and McMullan were bossing the match with great support from McCloskey and Spratt and they added a fourth. The ball broke to Spratt and he cooly made no mistake lobbing the ball over the Cookstown keeper. On 44 minutes the Drumahoe club added a fifth goal when Arbuckle found Blake Hill who played the ball across the keeper into the right hand bottom corner. A super pass by Spratt set-up Ben Buchanan and he made no mistake firing low into the net, despite the Cookstown’s keeper’s best attempts at trying to keep the ball out. Hill added his second goal of the game and ’Stute’s seventh when he latched onto Eugene Burns’ low centre before firing home from an astute angle. Institute U10...3 Ballycastle United U10...3 It was a close encounter between these two teams right from the off set. ’Stute started well with a lovely pass from Harrison Lea to set up Burnett who made no mistake finishing well. Institute seemed to become sloppy with their passing which rewarded Ballycastle with two goals which A Boyd in nets could have done nothing about. ’Stute equalised early in the second half after a long throw from Curry put L Boyd away down the middle and he finished quite compentantly under the keeper. In the closing stages Ballycastle regained their lead but from this moment on ’Stute played their best football of the game. Houghton released a great ball to Burnett which quite dramactically seen him slip past three Ballycastle players only to hit the outside of the post. Some great footwork by Allen ended with him setting up L Boyd, who got himself into a great position between the two Ballycastle defenders, and he struck it nicely into the back of the net to make it 3-3. In the last minutes of the game ’Stute had countless chances and Ballycastle were also denied claiming the lead. This was a very exciting game that could have gone either way, brilliant play by everyone but Harrison Lea was fantastic in the first half while Luke Curry showed excellent in the second half, with L Boyd producing two superb finishes. Institute U10: A Boyd, Cloete, Curry, Lea, Houghton, Lynch, Allen, Burnett and L Boyd.