Wakehurst boys lose thrilling encounter in televised match

Played before a big crowd, including the Northern Ireland Elite Performance Director, Jim Magilton, the Ballymena boys went down to a 3-1 scoreline. Lee Scroggie scored his first goal for the Club in the match, with Captain and Man of the Match, Niall Swann, catching the eye of many, with another outstanding display.

After the match, Wakehurst Manager, Glenn Speirs commented “Our team again played some good football tonight but didn’t get the rub of the green when it really mattered.

“All the boys are really enjoying playing in this highly competitive league and are looking forward to next week’s fixture against our local rivals, Ballymena United, in what promises to be a very entertaining game.”

In the Lisburn League the U13s turned in a good team performance, beating Loughgall Colts 2-1. Elsewhere in the Lisburn League, the U12s and U14s lost their matches against Windmill Stars and Lisburn Youth respectively.

The younger teams kicked off their season on Saturday with the commencement of the North West and Coleraine District Youth league.

Finally in a busy week for Northend United, the newest and youngest members of the Club began their football development with the start of the Football Development Centre at the Clough MUGA on Friday night, under the direction of the Club’s Football Development Officer, John Devlin

UNDER-9

Northend 0, Coleraine Academy 4: Northend U9s put on a great performance against Coleraine Academy considering they had three U8 players playing due to sickness. MOM - Alex McPeake

Northend: L Devlin, A McPeake, J McKeown, L Turner, S Bristow, J Mark, B O’Neill, I Wylie.

UNDER-10

Northend 0, Ballymoney United 7: Northend struggled to reproduce their form of the previous weekend and trailed by five goals at the break. MOM - Josh McPeake.

Northend: R McGrath, D Magill, K Cosgrove, J McPeake, J Adams, P Bristow, L Hextor, J McKeown, O Campbell.

Northend 0, Bertie Peacocks 5: The newly-formed Northend side at this age group had no answer to a Peacock’s side which has been together for three years. MOM - Darra Killough

Northend: B Harkin, TP McGurk, C McKillop, B O’Neill, N Devine, C Martin, K Campbell, C Wilson, S Crawford, D Killough.

UNDER-12

Northend 0, Hillsborough Boys 2: Northend under-12s dominated this midweek fixture against Hillsborough Boys for long periods but were unable to convert their possession into goals. MOM - Callum Forsythe

Northend: S Higgins; C Forsythe; J Kirkpatrick; O Connolly (c); C Meeke; J Coates; C McDonald; C Metrustry; J Lyness; R Gamble; M Stewart.

Northend 0, Windmill Stars 6: An injury-hit Northend side were well in the game until Windmill broke the deadlock, after which Northend heads dropped. MOM - Sean Higgins

Northend: S Higgins; C Meeke; J Kirkpatrick; O Connolly; C Killough; C Metrustry; C Forsythe (c); R Gamble; C McDonald; M Stewart; J Scullion.

UNDER-13

Northend 2, Oxford Sunnyside 4: After going behind inside two minutes, Northend deservedly levelled just before the break when a Robert Iovu free-kick, was headed home by arguably the smallest player on the pitch, Thomas McAuley.

Northend had a goal disallowed in the second half before two quick Oxford goals saw the Ballymena boys 3-1 down.

Robert Iovu scored a fine individual goal for Northend with five minutes to go to make it 3-2but Oxford scored a fourth with the last kick of the ball. MOM - Conor McGarry.

Northend: C McGarry (c), S Frew, M Willighan, R McCluney, J Mitchell, T Patchett, T McAuley, N Craig, R Iovu, C Gordon, P Kyle, C Surgeoner.

Northend 2, Loughgall Colts 1: With a number of players back from injury, a stronger-looking Northend side took the lead with John Brady scoring a superb goal, after being set up by Robert Iovu.

Northend were still half-celebrating as play re-started with Loughgall forcing an immediate equaliser.

The winning goal came in the second half after Robert Iovu took a short corner to Tom Patchett, he crossed it to John Brady who headed the ball into the roof of the net.

Northend: C McGarry (c), S Frew, M Willighan, R McCluney, C McDonald, R Iovu, J Brady, N Craig, T Patchett, T McAuley, J Mitchell, P Kyle, C Gordon, C Surgeoner.

UNDER-17

Crusaders 3, Wakehurst 1: On the main pitch at Seaview, Wakehurst should have opened the scoring, when a perfectly weighted throughball found Stephen Hare with only the keeper to beat.

However the keeper pulled off a great save but the rebound found Hare with an open goal at his mercy but he somehow fired his shot over the bar.

Crusaders made the most of the let-off as five minutes later they took the lead when a ball through the middle found their striker who beat Ryan Gault to the ball and planted the ball into an open net.

Crusaders held the lead for only a few minutes before the Ballymena boys came storming back.

After Cameron Waring was fouled thirty yards out, Thomas Brady lofted the ball into the Crusaders box, where Lee Scroggie was quickest to react and drove the ball past the advancing Crusaders keeper to level the score.

The score remained level until seven minutes before half time when the Crues striker ran on to a throughball but Ryan Gault in the Wakehurst net make a good first save but could do nothing when the rebound landed at the foot of the Crues striker to allow him to plant the ball into the empty net.

With minutes of the half left, Crusaders got their third goal of the half, when their striker picked up the throughball from an offside-looking position and ran on and planted the ball into the bottom corner of the Wakehurst net.

Neither team could really stamp their authority on the second half, and the final score remained 3-1. MOM - Niall Swann

Wakehurst: R Gault, R Sloan, M Laverty, N Swann, R Swan, T Brady, J Cameron, J Speirs, K Jackson, C Waring, S Hare, L Scroggie, J Nixon, A McAvoy

FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

Northend United’s Football Development Centre continues on Friday 27th September at the Clough MUGA for boys and girls aged 4 to 10 from 6.00pm to 7.30pm.

With a limited number of spaces remaining, please call John Devlin on 07919056834 to reserve your child a place or alternatively print off the Application Form on the website.