Holloway and Harper on target for Rangers to sink Town U16s

The sides had met earlier in the season as two previous encounters resulted in draws.

With Rangers winning the toss, they decided to play with the wind in order to gain an advantage in the first half. The Gers started brightly and were playing some attractive football and soon created several chances with the trickery and pace of Matthew Holloway causing the Town defence all sorts of problems.

The first clear chance of the day came when Bradley Harper rose in the air and took a ball from Dean McIlvena on the chest and with his second touch sent a diagonal ball to Matthew Holloway who got this shot away from a tight angle but was unable to convert the chance.

Banbridge Rangers were controlling the game with Matthew Dodds and Ryan Woods dominating midfield and creating the best chances while limiting the Town to breaks on the counter attack.

Rangers nearly took the lead when Matthew Dodds struck a free kick from 30 yards out that looked destined for the back of the net only for the Town keeper to pull off the save of the match.

Banbridge Rangers then took the lead when the Town keeper misplaced a free kick which he took out on the left outside his box, the ball fell to Matthew Dodds who played a quick ball to Bradley Harper and he calmly finished past the keeper as he was rushing back into his goal.

In the second half, Banbridge Rangers had a strong wind against them but were still able to control the game and create the better chances with another big save from the Banbridge Town keeper leaving the score at 1-0.

A free-kick in from Dean McIlvena was headed across the box by Bradley Harper into the path of Rueben Cobb who hit his shot but the keeper made himself big and saved well.

However, it wasn’t long until Rangers got their second of the game when Andrew Trimble picked up the ball just inside the Banbridge Town half with no one near him he had time to turn and play a diagonal ball over their defence in the direction of Matthew Holloway who closed in on goal with his shot beating the keeper at the near post.

With time running out and the game slipping away from them, Banbridge Town piled on the pressure but the defence of Cobb, Burns, Hilland and McIlvena held strong with keeper Craig Robinson having little to do.

After causing the Banbridge Town defence problems throughout the match and getting on the scoresheet, the man of the match was Matthew Holloway.