Seconds are seven up

Banbridge began slowly but grew into the match and some quick thinking on the right touch line by Matthew Hurst lead to the first short corner which was despatched nicely by Clarke Neville. This gave the young team some confidence and one turned quickly into two as a short corner variation lead to Matthew Warnock bundling in at the back post.

As the young side relaxed, errors crept into their game and soon enough North Down capitalised and a rebound was tucked into the back of the net by the North Down forward.

With only four minutes of the half remaining another silky bit if skill from Sam Farson lead to short corner number three which was despatched with a thunderous reverse from Clarke Neville.

With confidence building after the break Bann started brightly but some slack marking at the back lead to a second North Down goal, with the pressure building Bann new the next goal was crucial and this was provided when a lovely crash ball from Aaron Reid was touched in at the back post by David McCracken.

Straight from the restart North Down pressed and they were rewarded when a lovely ball over the top was touched past Appleton in the Bann goal.

North Down now had their tails up and not long later a suspect decision from the home umpire lead to a penalty stroke. This was crucial as it would make the score 4-4 but a terrific save from Appleton in the Bann goal kept Bann in front.

North Down kept the pressure on but stout defending from Ben Knox, Andrew Ferguson and Timmy Watt meant the score remained the same. This gave the young team the confidence to go on and take the bull by the horns and soon after Bann capitalised on North Down’s failure to finish with a tremendous one touch pass by Kyle Marshall led to Matthew Warnock finding the back board with a sumptuous reverse finish.

With their tails up a lovely ball from Clarke Neville lead to a mix up in the North Down defence and the ball rolled over the line to make the score 6-3.

With only a few minutes left a terrific bit of skill and pass from Bill Malcomson lead to Robin Smyrl smashing the ball into the backboard with a delicious finish.

This curtailed the scoring and the full time whistle blew moments later with the final score line 7-3 in favour of the young Bann side. A good result but improvement needed before the big derby next week. Special thanks to Glenn Marshall for umpiring the game.