Victory for Money thirds

The game began with Ballymoney showing pace and good team work which put Dungannon under pressure, forcing them to make mistakes early on.

Steady play produced a number of opportunities to score, one of which was a nice passing move from Aine McAuley to Hollie Flemming who cleanly swept it across the circle onto Johanne McAlister’s stick but unfortunately her shot was just wide of the goalpost.

Ballymoney continued to attack with quick passing and high standard of dribbling against our opposition.

The midfield and forwards worked well together managing to break through the Dungannon defence and been awarded by a penalty corner. Johanne McAlister took a strong penalty corner sweeping the ball to Kate Ruddock who missed the right post of the goals.

The Toon girls continued to get closer in scoring a goal and the pace of the game increased.

Ciara McGuigan powerfully hit the ball up the side line as Aine McAuley received it continuing towards the top of the circle and swept the ball near the opponents goals, Tara finished off the winning goal with a soft touch to the back of the net. Ballymoney 1 Dungannon 0.

After half time and an encouraging team talk Ballymoney started off the second half with Emma Patton taking pass back and Johanne McAlister working her way up to the circle putting pressure on Dungannon’s defence although they managed to protect their goal area.

Dungannon picked up their pace and began to work their way up towards Ballymoneys defending circle, Sophie Spence kept the ball from our goals passing to Kate Ruddock who dribbled up towards the circle with great skill, swept the ball to Rebecca McPeak and just missed the goal posts.

Towards the end of the match the umpire awarded Dungannon with a penalty corner, Ballymoney’s goalkeeper Rebecca Moore rose to the challenge with a spectacular save with her left kicker. Time was running out and we kept the ball from our goals so the score remained 1-0 to Ballymoney.

Our coach was pleased with our overall performance and looks forward to the remaining league matches with the same squad. Many thanks to Alan MacAuley for umpiring and Lynne for coaching. Team players: R Moore, C McGuigan, A McAuley, S Spence, J McAlister, R McPeak, J McConaghie, C Furguson, E Patton, H Flemming, K Ruddock, R Martin