Victory sees South leave former pitches with a flourish

South Antrim Firsts came onto the pitch at Laurelhill for what would be their final league game played at this venue as next week marks a historic occasion for the club who are moving to Friends’ School’s brand new state of the art pitches.

Determined to bounce back from last week’s draw against Queens’ University, South were focused from the first blow of the whistle. It was South Antrim who were first to take full advantage of their early chances, slotting two in quick succession. First a reverse stick effort from John Semple from a minute angle to leave the goalkeeper helpless.

Paul Maguire scored the second as the ball fell to him a foot off the line from a rebound off the post to which he made no mistake, sweeping the ball calmly into the net.

Bangor managed to steady themselves and get a goal from some impressive one-two play.

Both teams had fair chances but the Lisburn side capitalised on their run of possession, coolly penetrating the opposition’s circle to find a Bangor foot and the first short corner of the game was given. A slick routine resulted in Adam Glass securing his first of the game from a precise drag-flick to put South 3-1 to the good.

Bangor added to their tally ending the half with a tense score line of 3-2 in South’s favour.

The second half was similar to the first with both teams in equal possession and chances although the score line remained at 3-2 through high-quality defensive play from both sides.

South won a penalty flick and Adam Glass stepped up and added to his goal tally with a flick giving the ‘keeper no chance and bringing the score to 4-2.

Bangor pressure resulted in a goal, but South managed to hold out in the dying few minutes to secure the deserved points. South Antrim will hope to continue with another win at Antrim this weekend.

Thanks to South’s Sponsor of the Month, Woodland Financial Planning.