Carniny sides getting back to fitness with series of challenging friendlies

With the new season fast approaching for Carniny Youth teams the pre season games came thick and fast for the Ballymena Club last week.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Aug 2014, 15:47 BST
Ian Paisley MP is seen here with Carniny Youth members Calvin Letters and Jimmy Letters who were members of the club's Under 16 team who won their section of the Hughes Insurance Foyle Cup. Mr Paisley and the local DUP helped sponsor the team for the event. INBT 34-170CSIan Paisley MP is seen here with Carniny Youth members Calvin Letters and Jimmy Letters who were members of the club's Under 16 team who won their section of the Hughes Insurance Foyle Cup. Mr Paisley and the local DUP helped sponsor the team for the event. INBT 34-170CS
Ian Paisley MP is seen here with Carniny Youth members Calvin Letters and Jimmy Letters who were members of the club's Under 16 team who won their section of the Hughes Insurance Foyle Cup. Mr Paisley and the local DUP helped sponsor the team for the event. INBT 34-170CS

The Under 17s, after their Foyle Cup exploits, played their first pre season friendly against Antrim Rovers last Friday night and Davy Hanna’s youth team, the Under 11s were the guests of Greenisland FC, where the two teams gained valuable playing time in what was an exciting high scoring game.

Davy Leetch’s Under 15s entertained Belfast club, St Andrews last week with a good workout and win for the National League team.

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The newly formed U18/19 squad played their first game as a team together when they met local neighbours and friends Southside Rangers at Wakehurst last Saturday.

Southside took an early lead in the game, before Carniny came back into the game with goals from Kyle Beggs and Thomas Johnston, leaving the score 3-3 at the final whistle.

Carniny Youth will play in the NIFL Youth League. Carniny would like to wish Southside a successful season in the South Belfast youth League.

Plate Win for 10s at Roe Valley Tournament

Carniny 1 - 0 Quigley Point: Jack Kennedy he coolly converted to finish the game 1-0.

Carniny 0 - 1 Roe Valley:

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Carniny know Roe Valley well from the league and this fixture always creates a good match. The 2 teams were well matched with McMullan & Graham keeping Roe away from goal and the tireless running from Magee ensure Kennedy was always dangerous. The game looked like finishing 0-0, until a lapse in concentration in defence allowed Roe Valley to score the winner.

Carniny 2 -2 Coleraine: From a Coleraine corner, they scored direct to go 1-0 up. McMullan & Courtney were being bombarded and did well to keep the score down. A quick re-organisation changed Carniny and they started to pose more of a threat. Graham fed Kennedy who managed to equalise.

Still celebrating, Coleraine went down the pitch and scored to go 2-1. Carniny battled back and managed to equalise through Magee but the game finished 2-2.

The results put Carniny into the Plate semi-final to play against Coleraine 2nd’s

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Carniny 3 - 1 Coleraine 2nd’s: Midfield of Moody, Magee & McMullan combined well to feed Kennedy and he managed to slip through and put Carniny 1-0 at half time. A penalty doubled Carniny’s lead. Coleraine pushed forward and a defensive error allowed them to pull one back. Carniny still looked comfortable and pushing forward from defence Graham crossed the ball and McKee popped up at the back post to fire home to finish the game 3-1.

Carniny 0 - 0 Quigley Point (FINAL) Carniny youth win on pens: Carniny faced a rematch of their first game and both teams started the game slowly, in part due to the long day they both had had. The game ended 0-0 and went to penalties. Up stepped Quigley for Strange to save brilliantly. With the pressure on, Greer stepped up to fire home the winning penalty to ensure the boys went home as Plate winners.

Related topics:Coleraine