Success for Coleraine teams at NWCDYL finals day

From the start, both teams gave 100% and although chances were created, neither team could make the breakthrough. The Coleraine U8’s had the better chances with Matthew Johnston, Harry Doherty and Jake Scott hitting the post or going wide. Solid performances from Tyler Mitchell, Jake Brooks, Jack Elliot and Sam McMullan kept Dungiven chances to a minimum while Dylan Johnston, Matthew Lenaghan and Charlie Adamson in defence threw themselves at everything to stop the opposition scoring.

Dungiven’s best chance came near the end when Coleraine legs were getting weary and a powerful strike was heading towards goal but Myles Reily produced a fingertip save to push the ball over the crossbar and keep the scoreline at 0-0. Credit must go to both teams as it was a great game to watch and was agreed that both teams were winners and they the therefore shared the trophy.

The Under-9s took on Bertie Peacocks in the Plate final. Just as it looked like a scoreless first half Daniel Forsyth placed a fine shot into the corner with the keeper just failing to keep it out. Bertie’s continued to cause problems wide and some great wing play resulted in a mix up in the Coleraine defence leaving the Peacocks centre forward an empty net to tap home.

Coleraine seemed to lose focus and again more defence lapses allowed Bertie’s in to score to put them 2-1 up. Perhaps the move of the match lead to a fine equaliser with Rafferty finding the impressive Reece who had the calmness to slip the pass through to Bobby who coolly slotted past the Bertie’s keeper to even things up at 2-2.

Coleraine Olympic completed their season against Ballymena United in the NWCDYL Bowl final at the Showground’s on Saturday morning. As the match progressed Ballymena came into the match and Coleraine’s defence of Dylan Paine and Adam McClure had to be alert to thwart any danger. Midway through the second half Ballymena were awarded a penalty but Charlie Campbell in the Coleraine goal made an excellent double save. This spurred the young Bannsiders on and they came back into the game with Tyler Hutchinson and Brennan Whiteside impressing on the wings. Coleraine then took the lead with a Corry Leckie drive through a crowded box with 10 minutes to go.

In a seemingly never ending final few minutes Coleraine survived several Ballymena attacks with a mixture of good defending and fine goalkeeping.