Banbridge Town U10s bring home the Shield

Abbey Villa U10s 1

BANBRIDGE Town U10s travelled to Millisle on Saturday to take on second placed Abbey Villa in their penultimate game of the season.

The Town needed only a point from this game to secure the Shield, for Abbey Villa only a win would do.

The game had the feel of a cup final to it as both teams went for it from the start. The Town went close to scoring early on when Donnelly picked the ball up on the right and fed it through to Redpath who smashed his effort against the post.

The Town soon made it 1-0 when they caught Villa on the break. The speed of the move caught the Villa defence out, when the ball was played into Scott his shot was parried only as far as Annett who was able to pass the ball into the net.

Town were starting to take control of the game now and play some really good football. they went close again after some neat inter play between Donnelly and Winters with the latter squaring the ball to Woods whose shot rattled the crossbar.

Villa weren’t without their chances in the first half and they almost equalized but for two goal line clearances first from Scott and then Carswell.

At the other end Banbridge forced a corner which was swung into Redpath who placed his shot past the keeper and into the corner of the net to make it 2-0.

Annett made it 3-0 with a fine solo effort, attacking down the left he cut into the box and fired his shot across the keeper and into the back of the net.

The third goal seemed to settle the nerves and Banbridge were threatening to finish off Villa by half time. McCavitt found Redpath unmarked in the box, with his back to goal the young striker swivelled and hit an instinctive shot which rattled the frame of the goal for the third time.

Annett almost had a first half hat trick when he linked up well with McCavitt only to see his effort go agonisingly wide.

Villa started the second half with a sense of urgency as they knew they must win to stay in contention and they soon tested the Town’s defence with a shot that produced a fine save from Hunter.

Villa were throwing everything at them and looked odds on to score when their striker was played through, but out came Hunter and dived at his feet to block the shot. The rebound fell to another Villa striker but Hunter was up quickly to save the second shot as well.

Carswell, Casey and Quigley were putting on a master class in defence to keep a rejuvenated Villa at bay.

With Villa throwing so many forward Banbridge were able to catch them on the counter. Annett picked the ball up on the half way line and attacked the space in front of him, carrying the ball deep into the Villa half before cutting it back to Redpath in the area who cut inside two defenders and fired home his second to make it 4-0.

Villa then pulled it back to 4-1. Banbridge bought on Moore, Wilson, Savage and Russell in the second half to nullify any ideas Villa had of a comeback.

Banbridge added a fifth when Redpath found himself one on one with the keeper, he slotted the ball past him to score his 30th goal of the season and end the game 5-1 to Banbridge.

The score line doesn’t do justice to what a hard fought game this was, only for Banbridge’s defence it would have been a lot closer.

The final whistle was met with jubilant scenes of celebrations as this young team pick up their first piece of silverware. Well done to the whole team.

Congratulations also to Lewis Hunter and Ben Redpath who have been selected to play for the George Best League Select team. Man of the match was Woods.

Town Under 10’s Lewis Hunter, Stewart Carswell, Sean Casey, Keelan Quigley, Ben Scott, Michael McCavitt, Ryan Woods, Alex Donnelly, Zack Annett, Ben Redpath, Patrick Winters, Jack Moore, Jack Savage, Bailey Russell, Lennon Wilson.