Peter is Bann Thirds' McKnight in shining armour at Havelock

Peter McKnight could scarcely have had a better week in hockey terms. Pic: Presseye

The forward was part of the Banbridge Academy squad that sneaked past Sullivan Upper in the Burney Cup final on Wednesday afternoon and was the hero for the Threes at the weekend.

His goal was enough to see of Harlequins Twos and draw Bann within a point of their opponents in third place in Junior Two with a game in hand.

As if that wasn’t enough, he was also on target for the Seconds in their 3-1 win over Bangor Seconds.

Bann Thirds had their full string squad available with plenty of attacking options.

They started strongly with Marshall distributing well from the centre of midfield and Dean and Magowan probing the Harlequins defence.

Despite plenty of early pressure, Bann couldn’t create any clear chances with Harlequins defending well. Harlequins grew into the game and started to exert some pressure on the Bann defence, who held firm with Bennington and Green putting in some excellent tackles.

Magowan was first to test the Harlequins keeper when well placed but was unable to convert the chance.

Bann eventually opened the scoring when Green advanced down the right side of the pitch and released McKnight who finished superbly on his reverse stick.

Bann tried to extend their lead with Dean and Young unlucky to see efforts well saved by the Harlequins keeper just before half time.

The second half was quite an open affair with Bann looking for a second goal and Harlequins trying to find the equaliser. Bann squandered a couple of short corners with the second one just going past the post.

Bann’s ill-discipline saw them reduced to 10 on a couple of occasions and Harlequins also had a couple of players sin-binned.

Bann created several chances to put the game out of Harlequins reach but couldn’t find the final touch in the Harlequins circle. Harlequins won a short corner in the last few minutes but the high flick was well saved by the Bann keeper.

Bann managed to see out the rest of the match to take all three points. With a week off for Easter, Bann’s next game is away to North Down on Saturday 2nd April.