Purdy sisters on target for Larne and Ballyclare in derby

Zoe opened the scoring for Larne at Foundry Lane, but Jade had the final say when her late strike secured a 2-2 draw for Vikki Milligan’s girls.

The draw leaves the two east Antrim teams adrift at the foot of the Senior League Section 1 table approaching the halfway mark in the campaign.

Zoe Purdy got the Larne girls off to a fine start when her skilful reverse-stick shot flashed past Sara Coulter in the home goal in the 10th minute.

Suzanne Dickey, Jaquie Hanley and Milligan were prominent for the hosts, who had territorial advantage for most of the time, but the visitors doubled their lead through Teah Maguire after a well-worked a counter-attack.

Ballyclare spurned a great opportunity to reduce the deficit when awarded a penalty stroke, but Larne’s keeper, Trish Neill, made a stunning low save to deny Jade Purdy.

Approaching the interval, Dickey fared better when she darted into the circle to beat the diving keeper, with a shot in to the roof of the net.

With full-backs Kerry McLeod and Lorraine Ashcroft in splendid tackling form, goalie Coulter had an easy time in the second half, but despite being on top, Ballyclare had to wait until seven minutes from time before securing a point, when Jade Purdy angled the ball into the net from a Milligan pass.

Keeping up the momentum, Hanley almost stole the points at the death, only for Neill to produce another crucial save.

“We had at least a dozen penalty corners in a one-sided second half, before we eventually got that all-important equaliser,” said Ballyclare’s Sara Coulter.

“Emma Wilson was superb at right-midfield, where her ability to manoeuvre the ball into the circle created several scoring opportunities,” she added.

Ballyclare Ladies’ panel: S Coulter, G McMaw, J Purdy, K McLeod, L Ashcroft,R Beattie, C Darragh, E Wilson, V Milligan (C), S dickey, J Hanley, R Campbell, J Jones, E Gamble.

n Parkview Ladies were unable to find enough players willing to make the journey to Newry on Saturday, so they forfeited the Senior 4 points.

Next up: Ballycastle Ladies (h).