South firsts lose out to league leaders

RAPHOE 4 SOUTH ANTRIM 1

SOUTH travelled to Donegal this weekend to face league leaders Raphoe. Raphoe had won every match on home turf prior to this weekend and the South Antrim men were looking to cause an upset going into Christmas. The boys arrived to the usual Donegal greeting of drizzling rain but did not let this dampen their spirits or their resolve.

The match started and Raphoe looked a little uneasy as South came out with an attacking style in the opening exchanges but not finding any end product in the final third. Once Raphoe found a bit of rhythm, South were pegged back in their own half seeing little of the ball. Despite this, Raphoe could not find space to take a single shot in the first ten minutes. John Semple intercepted a risky cross field ball and fed Ward Phillips down the wing. Upon reaching the circle, Ward attempted to win a short corner by aiming for a defenders foot, the ball was inadvertently missed by three Raphoe players and fell to Mark Gray, but his shot was smothered. Raphoe countered quickly and a crashed ball in led to back post tap in to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Raphoe doubled their lead shortly after when an attempted clearance fell to an opposition player who slipped the ball to the back post for another tap in. Things got worse as Adam ‘brick wall’ Marshall was given a green card for a body-check which sent a burly Raphoe player to the floor. From this, another crashed ball in wasn’t cleared effectively and the resulting cross found a player free at the back post yet again to tap home. South got a ray of hope on miserable outing when the tricky forward John Semple won a short corner. Ricky O’Neill unleashed a pacey drag flick which the keeper made a meal of, sending it high into his net to make it 3-1. The Lisburners found a bit of life, and were starting to impose themselves on the game and just when Nathan Gamble was through free on goal the half-time whistle was blown.

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John Massey imparted some knowledge and updated tactics to deal with Raphoe’s physical style of play in the break and the team came out fighting. Lee marshalled his troops into a rousing second half performance. Two reverse stick shots from John Semple grazed the bar early in the second half, uncharacteristic misses for the inform forward. The Raphoe player’s attempted to disrupt South’s passing prowess with increased physicality, leading to Mark Gray having to leave the field for treatment. South controlled the game for large parts of the second half but could not find the net. Ward Phillips blazed a rushed shot embarrassingly wide, and a mistake in short corner routine summed up a bad day out for South. Further punishment was added when Paul Maguire was sin binned for wailing his protests to the umpire about a poor decision. The killing stroke was dealt when the umpire awarded Raphoe a short corner for an alleged deliberate foot inside the 25, which the South defenders protested furiously. Raphoe made no mistake in their routine, with a straight drag flick finding the bottom left corner.

The boys can credit themselves for producing a fantastic second half display that silenced the rowdy home support. Back in Lisburn two hours later, the team enjoyed their Club Christmas Dinner at the Plough Hillsborough and the day’s disappointments were forgotten over good food and even better banter.

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