Northend U-11s produce stand out display in disappointing weekend

Elsewhere in the North West, the U12s dominated their Cup match against Bertie Peacocks, missing numerous chances before eventually losing out in a three goal thriller. It was not a good day in the Cup for the U9s and U10s who lost their matches against Carniny and Oak Athletic respectively.

In the National league, the U17s couldn’t repeat last week’s good performance against Ballymena United, when they lost to third placed side, Maiden City, at Greysteel on Friday night. The U15s also lost to League Leaders, Irish League Academy side Portadown.

The U13s and U14s also lost their games in the Lisburn Invitational Youth League against Shankill Juniors and Carrick Rangers respectively.

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Northend United 0, Carniny Youth 3: This was a very competitive cup match as you would expect from a derby game, but it was Carniny who when infront when they were awarded a free-kick near the Northend goal.

When the ball was played in a Carniny player ran across the Northend keeper causing him to take his eye of the ball and it went into the Northend goal.

The second half started the same as the first with both teams counter attacking each other and with both sets of defenders in control of the game it was looking like a second half stalemate until Carniny scored two late goals to finish Northend off. MOM - Stevie Bristow.

Northend: C Wilson, B O’Neill, S Bristow, Z Erwin, J McKeown, C McGarry, I Wylie, T Boyd

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Northend 1, Oak Athletic 6: This was a tough draw for the wee blues in the NWCDYL Cup, but for the first half of the game there was absolutely nothing to choose between these sides.

Northend started the game brightly and took the lead after two minutes. Corey McMillan continued his rich goal scoring run with a cool finish after Peter Bristow had pressurised the Oak defence.

Oak drew themselves level after ten minutes when a little hesitation in the Northend defence allowed their opponents too much time. With three minutes left in the half Oak edged themselves ahead. The wee blues failed to compete for a corner kick and allowed their opponents the freedom to jump highest and head the ball into the goal.

With everything to play for in the second half, the wee blues simply failed to turn up and looked a completely different side to the opening part of the game. Too much time was given to their opponents and they paid a hefty price for not closing down their opponents by conceding two goals in the early part of the half.

Oak scored two further goals to put the game beyond doubt. The frustrating thing was that things could have been so much different with a little harder work to close down their opponents. MOM - Jack Adams, Curtis Wilson.

Northend: C Wilson, D Magill, K Cosgrove, C McMillan, P Bristow, J Adams O Campbell, B O’Neill.

Northend Youth 0, Bertie’s Little Ants 4: This was a game that the Coleraine side controlled from start to finish with their constant running with and without the ball causing problems all over the pitch for the Northend team.

Northend: C Mellon, K Campbell, S Crawford, C O’Brien, C McKillop, C Martin, L Allen, D Killough.

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Northend 5, Institute 1: From the off Northend played the best football of the year and went one nil up early on through a Callum Higgins strike.

Northend grew in confidence and played the next ten minutes encamped in the Institute box. The ball fell kindly to Harry Wylie who rifled an unstoppable shot into the back of the net.

Institute finished the half strong with Northend failing to clear their lines and looked very nervous. Euan McSparron pulled off two quick fantastic saves but the Northend team just would not clear the defence. Institute took advantage and pulled one back.

Northend restarted the second half and looked more confident. They controlled the game in the middle and began to find Pat Ferris on the right. His turn of pace was incredible leaving the Institute defence behind and putting Northend 3-1 up.

Shortly after this Ferris again flew down the outside and cut in slotting the ball home to make it 4-1.

It was the outstanding Ferris who finished things off with his hat trick, with another well taken goal.

A delighted U11 Manager, Davy Wylie stated after the match: “This is the second week in a row the boys have won convincingly and it was great team performance and that finishing touch that has been missing for most of the season has returned. Hopefully this will continue for the rest of the season.”

MOM - Pat Ferris

Northend: E McSparron, C Higgins, R McQuillan, C Kilgore, H Wylie, C Campbell (c), J Wilson, P Esler, P Ferris, C Barr.

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Northend 1, Bertie Peacock’s Youth 2: Northend U12s travelled to Ballysally with confidence on the back of a long unbeaten run, stretching back to last November.

Northend went ahead when typically sublime corner from Conor McDonald was met by a Josh Coates header putting the young Blues into a deserved lead.

As they pushed for a second, they were unfortunately caught on the counter attack as the impressive Peacock’s centre forward capitalised on Northend’s defensive indecision to make it level at the break.

In the second half, Northend’s frustration began to grow as Bertie’s continued to stifle the Northend attack.

As the game swung from end to end, it was the Bertie Peacocks boys who were celebrating when the pendulum swung their way and they went into a 2-1 lead and within minutes, the final whistle signalled the end of Northend’s cup adventure and the end of that long unbeaten run. MOM - Jay Kirkpatrick.

Northend: S Higgins, J Kirkpatrick (c), C Mc Donald, C Meeke, C Forsythe, O Connolly, J Coates, C Metrustry, M Stewart, C Killough, J Scullion.

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Shankill Juniors 4, Northend 1: Northend fell behind to titla challengers Shankill after four minutes when a Shankill forward was given plenty of time and space to score.

Northend went 2 nil down on 16 minutes after crazily conceding a penalty from a Shankill throw-in into the box, again when under no real pressure. Shankill scored from the resulting penalty.

Northend pulled one back on 25 minutes when good work from Tom Patchett and Conor McGarry resulted in Robert Iovu scoring. Northend conceded yet again one minute into the second half after having had at least 4 chances to clear the ball from defence.

Shankill scored their final goal from a direct free-kick on the edge of the box with 8 minutes to go. Final score 4-1

Northend lost yet another game despite matching their opponents for most of the game and in most areas of the pitch.

They are in a bit of a ruck at the minute and have got into the terrible habit of gifting teams goals and showing little creativity when trying to score goals. MOM - Robert Iovu

Northend: C Brennan, S Frew, S Lecky, R McCluney, J Brady, M Willighan, R Iovu, T McAuley, C McGarry, T Patchett, R Campbell (c), N Craig, C Gordon, P Kyle

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Maiden City 4, Wakehurst 0: Wakehurst travelled to Greysteel on Friday night to play a Maiden City team who have been in the top three in this League all season and came back to earth with a bump following the previous week’s good win over Ballymena United.

The Ballymena Boys started brightly and Jamie Speirs saw a shot from distance go narrowly over the crossbar on five minutes.

In was all Wakehurst in the opening twenty minutes and Ryan Gault could have given Wakehurst the lead on ten minutes when a header went narrowly past the post, following a good Speirs free-kick.

Gradually Maiden City began to claw their way back into the game but found Niall Swann, and Anthony McAvoy in top form in the Wakehurst defence. Maiden City’s best chance in the first half ended in their striker heading the ball over the crossbar following a deep cross into the Wakehurst penalty box.

Jamie Speirs’ free-kick forced in Maiden City goalkeeper into a good save in the final minutes of the first half and a Speirs and Stevie Hare link-up resulted in another good shot on the Maiden City goal.

Into the second half and Wakehurst were caught cold in the opening minutes. Maiden City scored three goals without reply in a devastating display of passing football in the first fifteen minutes.

Wakehurst never recovered from this spell in the game and made substitutions in the form of Ross Swan, Cameron Waring and Kyle Jackson as they tried to get back into the game.

Niall Swan went close for Wakehurst in the latter stages of the match before Maiden city scored from an uncharacteristic Wakehurst mistake following a corner-kick to leave the final score 4-0

Wakehurst: A Tolan, J Hanlon, M Laverty, A McAvoy,, N Swann (c), J Cameron, J Speirs, R Gault, S Hare, A Neill, C Waring, L Scroggie, R Swan, K Jackson

* Jamie Speirs and Aodhan Tolan were again members of the Wakehurst FC Irish League Championship 2 panel at the weekend for their match against Lurgan Celtic.

Unfortunately Wakehurst lost the match by a 2-1 scoreline with Jamie Speirs getting an extended run-out in the second half as Wakehurst went looking for the all important equaliser.

It was yet another example of how the link-up between the two clubs last years is already bearing fruit.