Deserved win for South Thirds with a difficult away victory in Donegal

South anticipated a difficult match in Donegal playing against a side relegated from Junior League 1 last season. In the end, South came away with an unexpected but well deserved win.

The South team, full of experience with Ian Millar, Andy Brown, Gary Stewart and Redpath brothers George and William, joined by another South stalwart, Johnny Taylor who has returned from Lisnagarvey. There may not have been too many young legs in this team, but lack of youth was well compensated by experience. New faces on the pitch were supplemented by a new team manager, Ronnie Redpath in the dug-out.

Raphoe made the early running but found the South defence well organised and Ashley Sloan in goal was rarely troubled. Gary Stewart kept a close eye on the Raphoe centre forward, frustrating him with strong tackling on several occasions. On a rare push forward, Johnny Taylor for South managed to make some space for himself on the edge of the Raphoe circle and find Alan Hamilton with a great pass which he adeptly placed in the corner of the goal. This was a real bonus for South and crucially gave them something to defend.

Defence was very much the order of the day, but despite this, Raphoe were unable to create any clear-cut chances. The second half followed the same pattern with South defending with great discipline and making the occasional foray into the opposition half. Another fine move between Taylor and Hamilton almost led to a second goal for the Lisburn side.

Mark Bell and Paul Beattie were covering lots of ground in the middle of the pitch for South and Matthew McPolin was having an impressive first outing for the Thirds. South could have made the final minutes much more comfortable when following-up on a Hamilton shot, Paul Beattie accepted the rebound and clattered his effort off the goal post. In the end it was academic as the final whistle sounded South celebrated 3 points that they could not have expected on the road to Donegal. Thanks go to Charles Redpath for umpiring.

South’s newly assembled Fifths got their season off to a fine start with a 1-0 win over Bangor 5ths. With many new and upcoming players in the team, they gelled quickly and managed to sneak a goal with a well worked ball from Graeme Allister to Neil Wilson, who placed it into the back of the net.