Hockey men finish 2012 with flourish after stylish victory
Mark Monteith's first goals of the season helped Ballymena Seconds to victory over Mossley on Saturday. INBT50-250AC
BALLYMENA Men’s 2nd XI finished off 2012 on a high note with resounding 4 -0 victory over Mossley Sixths on Saturday at the Showgrounds.
Despite their home advantage Ballymena were slow to fine their rhythm and displayed a certain nervousness in defence. Mossley, on the other hand, looked confident and their early designs on the Ballymena goal saw Ballymena struggle to clear the ball.
It was Mark Monteith who broke the deadlock to claim his first goal of the season midway through the half and to take the wind out of the visitors’ sails.
A short time later Monteith struck again to claim his second goal, when the initial attempt by Matt O’Neil was cleared by the Mossley keeper.
Midway through the second half, Ballymena sliced through the Mossley defence with Phil Moody on hand to claim the ball in a crowded circle and reverse flick the ball past the stranded Mossley keeper to make it 3-0.
Although Ken Murphy and Mark Lightbody both had opportunities at goal, in the dying minutes of the game, it fell to Andy Boyd on the left wing to seal Mossley’s fate. Boyd picked up a cross field ball at the back post, from a quickly taken free by Alister Hanna, steadied himself and flicked the ball high into the corner.
This was a well-deserved end to 2012 by the Seconds who have taken maximum points in their last two games and now look forward to Kilkeel who visit on 5th January. Thanks too to Davy Lorimer for umpiring.
Seconds: James Birrell(GK), Alister Hanna(Capt), Paul McDowell, Ethan Archer, Ken Murphy, Al Donald, Aaron Murphy, Mark Monteith, Andy Boyd, Mark Lightbody, Phil Moody, Matt O’Neill, Andy Lorimer.
LADIES
Ballymena II 4, Banbridge 0: Ballymena made no mistake against a team they had drawn with in their previous meeting.
Ballymena opened their scoring a well-rehearsed set piece executed by Sharon Reid across the D to a waiting Stephanie Storey who afforded the Banbridge keeper no opportunity to recover from this fine strike.
Ballymena, by now, in control in mid field again pressed the Banbridge defence and a well-placed ball by Sarah McBride lead to a goal mouth scuffle where the wily Ballymena captain, Stephanie Storey, was on hand to slot the ball home for her second goal.
Ballymena were now totally dominant both at the front and in the mid field and a slide rule pass forward to Grace McBurney afforded her the opportunity to carve out a further goal scoring opportunity for the home side. Step up the Ballymena captain, Stephanie Storey, again whose honed poaching instincts ensured she was on hand to slot the ball home for a hat trick.
Kirsty McMaster was instrumental in Ballymena’s fourth goal with an inch perfect through ball to Stephanie Storey afforded her the space to bobble through the Banbridge defence, for a shot at goal which was duly converted by Aimee Logan.
Seconds: Laura Logan, Debbie Campbell, Nicola Greer, Kirsty McMaster, Sarah Cundell, Sharon Reid, Catherine McCracken, Sarah McBride, Lorna Murphy, Aimee Logan, Stephanie Storey, Grace McBurney.
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Weather for Ballymena
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
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Temperature: 7 C to 14 C
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