Carrick defeat Lisburn in last home game of the season

The league standings suggested the game would be a tight affair, with both sitting mid-table. And the Carrick team will have felt unlucky to have lost the earlier meeting between the two teams by a single point.

Carrick began the stronger of the two sides and secured a penalty in the opening minute which Luke Whitall converted to make it 3-0 to the hosts.

The Carrick team continued to exert control and just a few minutes later hooker Neil Hanna scored a try underneath the posts. The score came from some lovely line breaks by centre Jonny Cullen and a few gaps being found in the Lisburn defence by the loose forwards. Hanna glided in, shrugging off a few tackles on his way over the whitewash. Whittall added the conversion put Carrick 10-0 up.

The game seemed to drop slightly in terms of the intensity but in the 23rd minute the visitors struck back with a try of their own which came from a line-out ball which was mauled forward before being spread quickly out the backs. The Lisburn centre evaded a few tackles to score underneath the sticks.

It was to be the only real attacking threat from Lisburn and two more penalties before half-time saw the Carrick team’s lead (16-7) and confidence grow.

The first 20 minutes of the second-half was a rather scrappy affair and on the hour-mark the home side lost Curtis Rea to injury and played the rest of the match with 14 men.

Whittal converted penalty to make it 19-7 before adding another to round off the win.

Carrick: A. McKinney, J. Wady, J. Cullen, J. Sheriff, B. Alexander, L. Whitall, M. Patterson. R. McGonigle, R. Crymble, C. Rea, C. Ferris, A. Kincaid, R.Williams, N. Hanna, A. Gibney.