Football: Cookstown RBL well beaten after horror start

COOKSTOWN RBL 1

Cookstown RBL travelled to play title-chasing Newington Reserves last Saturday and, after a nightmare start, ended up losing the game 5-1.

RBL knew it was going to be tough against a strong Newington side who, in their previous game, put eight goals past Woodlands without reply.

Newington started the game strongly and were sharper all over the pitch than their opponents. It came as no surprise when they scored early on after some neat play from back to front.

RBL tried to regroup, but with a strong wind blowing against them and Newington pressing relentlessly they struggled to create any chances with Newington outworking and outplaying their Cookstown opponents.

Newington scored three more goals inside the first twenty minutes and went in at half time four goals up. After some stern words during the half time interval RBL upped their work rate and started to make an impression on the game forcing Newington into making mistakes.

James McPartland got a goal back ten minutes into the second half when he was played in one-on-one with the keeper and calmly placed his shot into the bottom corner.

The game was going end to end with both sides creating chances but the final suckerpunch came with fifteen minutes to go when Newington got their fifth goal to all but kill off any hope of an RBL comeback.

This Saturday is Cookstown RBL’s last fixture with a home game against Cookstown Olympic at Beechway. All support is welcome.

A team representing the club are running the Belfast marathon on 2nd May in aid of Alzheimer’s Society and would ask anyone who would like to donate to this worthy cause by logging onto www.justgiving.com/richard-mcpartland/.

Their donations will be greatly appreciated by the club and especially the marathon runners who will be tired and sore for their efforts.