Wakehurst enjoy atrip to the seaside

PORTSTEWART has always been a tough nut for Wakehurst to crack, but having already defeated them at Mill Meadow earlier in the season, they completed the double with a 2-0 win at Portstewart.

The game was evenly contested but Wakehurst created the better opportunities and took two of these in the space of a minute early in the first half that settled the match.

Roy Colville had already smashed a volleyed strike off the crossbar in the 6th minute from a Lee McCaughern corner, but the home team failed to heed this warning and 4 minutes later they went behind.

Aaron Lemon found striker Conor Gregg with a defence splitting pass and Gregg was quick to size up the situation and lobbed keeper Joel Madison from 10 yards. Portstewart didn’t have time to recover as Jason Paul raced past three defenders on his way into the penalty box and he picked out Ryan Gregg on the edge of the 6-yard box to double the advantage.

Portstewart tried hard to initiate a comeback and they did manage to create a couple of half chances but a combination of good defending from Colville and Dougie Stevenson and precise handling from keeper Marc Maybin kept them at bay.

The closest they came to reducing the deficit was from an Owen Peden corner that McCaughern headed off the goal-line.

And it was the visitors who almost increased their lead on 45 minutes when Aaron Lemon raced past Andy White but after drawing keeper Madison off his line, his effort went just over the crossbar.

There was no further scoring in the second half with Wakehurst content to hold onto what they already had and the home team were mainly restricted to long range efforts, which Maybin dealt with
competently.

Manager Ian Gregg brought on substitutes Stephen Mellon and Jordan Lemon as he looked for a clean sheet and at the end of 90 minutes the 2-0 result had been comfortably achieved.

TEAM: M Maybin, P Alexander, D Gage, D Stevenson, R Colville, A Laughlin, A Lemon, L McCaughern, C Gregg, J Paul, R Gregg.

SUBS: J Lemon, S Mellon, D Parker, J Alexander.

Next Saturday, March 2, Wakehurst entertain Queens University at Mill Meadow, Castledawson. Kick-off is 3.00pm.