Derby delight as Friends beat Wallace to reach Burney Cup final

FRIENDS School pipped local rivals Wallace High School after a thrilling Burney Cup semi final on Wednesday in a game of high drama at a packed Lisnagarvey Hockey Club.

Wallace started the game well and forced a number of penalty corners with Ross Kelly’s drag flicks being closed down by the aggressive running of Haydn Cartmill, while Wallace co captain Glenn Reid took a penalty corner off the line at the other end.

Friends also created chances in a game which consistently kept spectators on edge as the game swung from end to end and opened the scoring when a Wallace defender missed an overhead.

Friends then doubled their lead as they took control of the game in the middle period of the first half but were rocked just before half time when a Stephen Murray penalty corner was stopped illegally on the line by a Friends defender and Ross Kelly confidently converted the resulting penalty stroke.

Into the second half and the Wallace team came out with a real determination to get onto level terms and this they did as Stephen Murray this time scored with an excellent drag flicked penalty corner low into the net. Jack Wilson and Patrick McClean were now causing their near rivals real problems with their probing runs from midfield and it was no surprise when Daniel Nelson converted a cross with a cool finish to give Wallace a well deserved lead.

With ten minutes to go, Wallace lost the influential Wilson, rather harshly sent to the sin bin and this had a definite impact in the five minute period when he was off the pitch

Friends got back on level terms with nine minutes left in the game and then scored the winner through skipper Robert Cumins with five minutes remaining. The Wallace team continued to attack the Friends circle and were unlucky on several occasions not to be awarded penalty corners but ultimately they could not get through the well drilled Friends defence.

This was a superb advertisement for schools’ hockey in Ulster, with two neighbouring schools producing an excellent display of end to end attacking hockey.

The young Wallace team will look forward to next year whilst Friends can look forward to a final date with either Campbell College or Banbridge Academy.