McAtamney maintains scoring form as Ellison gets in on the act with first goal

Banbridge Town Juniors U16s Lisburn League Team won their third league game on the bounce on Saturday, a convincing 2-0 victory over Lurgan Town at Havelock Park.
Limerick FC return to pre-season training next weekLimerick FC return to pre-season training next week
Limerick FC return to pre-season training next week

With regulars McKibbon and Downey unavailable, the Town showed the strength and depth of their squad by putting in a fantastic display to move menacingly up the table. They’re now into fifth and on the heels of the leaders with only five points separating the top five.

Playing against the strong wind and with the sun in their eyes, Town had to battle hard in the first half to get a foothold in the game.

McAtamney’s set pieces were always dangerous and Rafferty and McCann were working tirelessly up front to occupy the Lurgan defence.

With the long ball proving difficult to deal with in the strong wind, the Juniors found themselves lucky when the visitors struck the post after twenty minutes.

The Town midfield of Houston, Fearon, McAtamney and Devlin worked hard to dominate possession and the half finished scoreless.

The second half saw the Juniors up the tempo and inject some great passing to outplay the Lurgan midfield.

With the pressure mounting, the Lurgan keeper was correctly penalised for handling outside the area and McAtamney took full advantage from the free-kick with a well struck shot to break the deadlock, keeping up his superb goal-scoring form.

Both Fearon and McCann almost added to the scoreline soon after, but the second came again from a McAtamney inswinging corner, when Byrne flicked on at the near post for the inrushing Ellison at the back post to score his first goal for the club.

McKinstry came on to orchestrate the midfield and for the remainder of the half the Juniors showed great maturity managing the game and retaining possession, which frustrated the Lurgan players. The defence of Morgan, Ellison, Irwin and in particular Fitzsimmons limited the Lurgan strike-force to shooting from long range which was never going to trouble Leckey in goal.

Manager Fred Scappaticci was delighted with the performance of all 13 players involved: “They all showed an outstanding display of passing, movement and control of the game.”

TOWN: Colin Leckey, Padraig Fitzsimmons, Paul Morgan, Jason Ellison, Jamie McAtamney, David Houston, James McCann, William Irwin, Gavin Fearon, Ryan Devlin, Michael Rafferty, Danny McKinstry, Owen Byrne,