Wakehurst boys produce fireworks in ‘derby’ win

As the fireworks at the adjacent Ecos Centre rained down overhead, it was Wakehurst U17s who produced all the explosive action on the pitch, when they beat ‘derby’ rivals, Ballymena United 3-1 in a fiercely contested match at the Showgrounds 3G pitch on Friday night.
The Wakehurst U-17 squad. INBT44-238ACThe Wakehurst U-17 squad. INBT44-238AC
The Wakehurst U-17 squad. INBT44-238AC

A delighted Wakehurst coach, Melvyn Logan said after the match: “The boys produced another top performance tonight with all the hard effort they are putting in during training, really starting to show on the pitch. There were too many top performances to single out anyone in particular but what is becoming really evident is the camaraderie within this team.”

Also in the Elite National League, Mark Herbison’s U15s lost a close match against Maiden City side Ballymoor at the Ballymena Showgrounds.

In the Lisburn league, the U13s continue to turn heads with a fine 5-4 win over Oxford Sunnyside, but the U12s were not so lucky with their score while the U14s produced their best performance of the season with a fine 2-2 draw with Shankill Juniors.

In the North West and Coleraine District league, there was disappointing results for the U10s United team and U11s against the Maiden City Academy and Coleraine Olympic respectively. Elsewhere the U9s lost to Ballymoney United while the U10s Youth team earned a credible draw against Coleraine Olympic

UNDER-9

Ballymoney United 6, Northend 2: Having trailed 4-0 at the interval, Northend replied with two goals from Ben O’Neill before Ballymoney scored twice more. MOM - Stevie Bristow, Jay McKeown.

Northend: C Wilson, D Killough, K Campbell, L Turner, J McKeown, S Bristow, B O’Neill, I Wylie

UNDER-10

Maiden City 8, Northend 3: After being 5-0 down at the break, Northend sensed a comeback with goals from Jack Adams, Owen Campbell and Caolan Lennon before the north west side took control again.

Northend: R McGrath, D Magill, K Cosgrove, B O’Neill, J Adams, P Bristow, C Lennon, O Campbell.

Northend 1, Coleraine Olympic 1: After falling behind, Kevin Cosgrove earned a draw for Northend with a half-volley from 15 yards. MOM - Ben Harkin, Niall Devine

Northend: C Wilson, B Harkin, K Cosgrove (c), N Devine, C Martin, C McKillop, J McFetridge, L Hextor, J McKeown

UNDER-11

Coleraine Olympic 3, Northend 0 : Three first half goals put paid to Northend’s chances and the Ballymena boys will have to continue to work on closing down their opponents and most importantly concentration. MOM - Euan McSparran.

Northend: E McSparron, R McMillan, C Kilgore, C Campbell, H Wylie (c), P Ferris, J Morrow, C McMillan, J Montgomery, J Wilson, C McGaughey.

UNDER-12

Northend 1, Willowback 6: After a convincing display in their previous outing, this was a setback for Northend as the Lisburn League continues to provide a steep learning curve.

Matthew Stewart scored Northend’s goal when he was put through on goal and duly dispatched with a well-placed finish. MOM - Jay Kirkpatrick

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

UNDER-13

Oxford Sunnyside 4, Northend 5: An early Josh Mitchell penalty set Northend off to a good start and they doubled their lead through Ruairi Campbell on 13 minutes.

But Northend took their fot off the pedal and were punished by three Oxford goal inside nine minutes before another Campbell cracker brought the score to 3-3 at the break.

Oxford grabbed the lead early in the second period but Josh Mitchell converted two more penalty kikcs to complete a remarkable hat-trick from the penalty spot. MOM - Matthew Willighan, Josh Mitchell

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

UNDER-14

Northend 2 Shankill Juniors 2: Northend produced their best performance for this game and with a bit more luck could have taken all the points.

However in an even first half, the Blues found themselves a goal down midway through the half.

Into the second half and a rejuvenated Northend team pulled a goal back from James O’Loughlin, after ten minutes of the half. However Northend took their foot off the pedal and allowed Shankill to take the lead in the match after twenty-five minutes off this half.

The Blues came storming back and in a frantic last ten minutes of the match, Graeme Macartney scored to pull Northend level at 2-2 in the match and a missed chance right at the end robbed the Blues of all three points.

Northend: J Marks, H McClurkin, J Hayburn, A Shaw, A O’Boyle, J Stevenson, B Millar, A Campbell, G Macartney, D Bell, S Hutchinson, T Evans, J Wharry, E McLaughlin.

UNDER-15

Northend 1, Ballymoor 3: Northend went into this match with no fewer than nine players not available due to injuries and other commitments and with no available recognised keeper it was Lewis McFall who thankfully volunteered to stand in.

On 11 minutes Northend made the breakthroug when the quick thinking Herbison nipped in and slotted the ball into the net as the Ballymoor keeper and defender hesitated.

With a strong wind at their backs in the second half, Ballymoor scored within a minute and they went on to score twice more. MOM - Robbie Dennison, Caolan McLaughlin, Lewis McFall

Northend: L McFall, J Anderson, L McCann, R Dennison, C McLaughlin, O Boyle, B Cairns(c), S Bennett, J Dawson, Z Herbison, M Waide.

UNDER-17

Wakehurst 3, Ballymena United 1: It was Ballymena United who started the strongest in this match with the breeze at their backs. However they found the Wakehurst defence of Hanlon, Swann and McCollum in top form, a feature of recent matches. Indeed any high balls into the Wakehurst box were dealt with comfortably by Wakehurst goalkeeper Aodhan Tolan, making his debut for the local boys on the night.

On 25 minutes, another high ball into the Wakehurst box was punched clear by the goalkeeper in a challenge with a Ballymena striker, only for the referee to deem it had been a foul challenge and the spot kick was duly converted.

However this decision only seemed to galvanise the Wakehurst team and Kyle Jackson saw the Ballymena keeper pull off a great save to keep the scores level.

However Wakehurst pulled level minutes before half time, when from a corner kick, Ballymena only partially cleared the ball and when the ball broke to James Cameron, his well struck shot was parried by the keeper and Wakehurst Captain Niall Swann was on hand to slot the ball into the net to leave the scores level going into half time.

A reorganisation at half time lead to Michael Laverty being introduced for McAvoy and this had an immediate affect of shoring up the Wakehurst left hand side.

In this half, Speirs, Cameron, Etherson and Gault were in dominant form in the important midfield area for Wakehurst, eclipsing their Ballymena counterparts. Wakehurst took the lead midway through the half, when a Jamie Speirs well struck high shot found the top corner of the Wakehurst net.

With Wakehurst 2-1 ahead, Ballymena tried to get back in the game but found Hanlon, Swann, McCollum and Laverty unwilling to give anything away.

With six minutes of the match remaining, Wakehurst finished the game off from another corner. This time Niall Swann saw his header cleared off the Ballymena goal line before Ryan Gault performed a trademark bicycle kick to plant the ball into the back of the Ballymena net and leave the score 3-1 to the Wakehurst boys.

Wakehurst: A Tolan, R Sloan, J Hanlon, N Swann, R Swan, K McCollum, J Cameron, J Speirs, B Etherson , A McAvoy, R Gault, K Jackson, S Hare, R Swan, C Waring, S Hare, J Nixon, M Laverty.