Becky does the ‘trick’ as ladies overcome Dublin opponents

Ballymena organised themselves quickly and confronted the opposition in a methodical and structured manner.

Becky Reynolds launched a speculative shot at the Rovers keeper which, to her credit, she saved but Reynolds followed up on the rebound and despite losing her balance managed to swerve the ball in front of the approaching keeper and into the back of the net.

A short time later Reynolds scored her second goal from a cheeky little deflection following the initial penalty corner.

Following the restart the Dublin girls mounted a vigorous assault on the Ballymena goal but the home side sealed victory with a third goal from a penalty corner. The initial strike from Sarah Allen was deflected in by none other than Becky Reynolds to take the tie well and truly beyond the reach of the Dublin side 3-0 and a well deserved hat trick.

Ballymena: J Logan, G McBurney, S Allen, S Morrison, C McCracken, V Hogg, J Duncan, A Hempsey, C Gillespie, Z Dickson, R Reynolds, N McMullan, A Logan, L Kennedy,

Grosvenor II 3, Ballymena II 1: Ballymena Seconds faced a tough task on Saturday against a Grosvenor side who have only conceded two points in their last nine games.

Despite a positive start from Ballymena, a well constructed passage of play from the hosts, together with some great passing inside the visitor’s circle and a text book finish afforded Grosvenor the lead.

Ballymena did everything they could to keep their opponents out including goal line clearances from Kathryn Kealey, Ashleigh Harbinson and Nicola Greer but they finally succumbed to a scrappy goal to fall 2-0 behind.

For their endeavours and to their credit Ballymena pulled one back courtesy of Amy Farquhar but Grosvenor finished off with a final push and scored a third goal as play drew to a close.

Seconds: Lauren Hanna, Ashleigh Harbinson, Kirsty McMaster, Nicola Greer, Kathryn Kealey, Sarah Cundell, Vicky Hogg, Stephanie Storey, Aimee Logan, Joann Lowry, Laura Logan, Rebecca McPeake, Amy Farquhar.

MEN

Ballymena 1, Armagh 1: Ballymena were left to rue missed chances as they were held to a draw by Armagh.

The Braidmen missed a number of chances in the first half and were punished early in the second half when Amragh took the lead from a penlaty flick, despite a great effort by keeper Hampton to keep the ball out.

This seemed to shock Ballymena out of their self imposed slumber and their response was immediate. Tim Lowry, for the second week in a row, got himself on the right end of a Davy McDonald delivery into the ‘D’, and added another to his goal tally for the season.

Tempers flared in the closing stages and ill-discipline, from both sides led to Armagh being reduced to ten men and a yellow card for the hosts.

Ballymena: Eddie Hampton, Chris Hogg(captain), David McDonald, Andrew Crooks, Andrew Bell, Mark Allison, Clive Fulton, Victor Orr, Mark Montieth, Matthew O’Neil, Andrew Shields, Andrew Lorimer, Tim Lowry

Ballymena II 1, South Antrim V 2: Ballymena took the lead in this game against the run of play after Hanna, with considerable ingenuity, created sufficient space to afford Brendan Wenban an attempt at goal. As the initial shot was sliced it fell upon Ken Murphy, who was ideally placed to slot the ball home and edge Ballymena into the lead.

The match continued to ebb and flow until a few minutes before half time when Antrim were awarded a short corner. The ball was duly dispatched into the net to level the score as the whistle blew.

The young Antrim side took the lead with fifteen minutes to go from their second short corner 1-2.

Thanks to Davy Lorimer to his continued support of the team as umpire.

Seconds: J. Birrell(GK) D. McDowell, D. Bradley, P. McDowell, A. Hanna(C), D. Wenban, W. Barr, K. Murphy, E. Hampton, A. McKelvey, P. Moody, B. Wenban, J. Gibson.