Waide nets a hat-trick as Carrick hit Greenisland for six

In recent years this Senior 2 derby fixture has tended to produce close-fought and cagey games but on Saturday afternoon Carrick grabbed this game by the scruff of the neck early on with Christine Waide opening the scoring for her team in less than 10 minutes from a second-phase penalty corner play.

Fifteen minutes later Waide was the provider for a debut senior goal from Carrick’s Aoife Burgess, recently converted from defence to attack by Carrick coach Neil McConnell.

Five minutes later Waide struck again to make it 3-0, again from a penalty corner play, and just before half time Corrie Johnston set up Ashley McConnell to take Carrick into half-time with a well-deserved 4-0 advantage.

Greenisland stuck gamely to their task, never once letting their heads drop in spite of the almost incessant pressure with Waide causing them constant problems in centre midfield.

Rachel Lynas rocketed Carrick into a 5-0 lead when she converted yet another penalty corner play and Waide completed her hat-trick late in the game to make the final score 6-0 to Carrick.

“Obviously there’s added enjoyment and satisfaction in any derby win,” said Carrick captain Amy Cross after the match, “but we approached this game just as we would any other. We’ve been disappointingly inconsistent so far this season, particularly with our goalscoring and we really wanted to get 2016 off to a winning start, regardless of the opposition”.

“We know Greenisland have been struggling this season,” continued Amy, “and they were unfortunate to come up against us on a day when everything just seemed to go right for us.”

“To their credit, they maintained a really positive team spirit in spite of the mounting scoreline, and they never gave up right to the final whistle. But once we got our noses in front we knew we could win this game and win it well. It was an excellent team performance from every Carrick player and I think our efforts fully deserved the final scoreline”, concluded Amy.

Carrick Player of the Match: Christine Waide