A game of two halves as men's Seconds fall short

There were lots of new faces in the line up including, Ken Murphy, Matthew O’Neill and Mark Lightbody, who are newcomers to the senior side, along with Andrew Crooks who is returning from long term injury.

Despite having so many new players, Ballymena settled in quickly to the game and began to penetrate the home side’s circle after only 5 minutes, whilst easily keeping the Instonians attacks at bay at the other end.

Jack Gibson and Ken Murphy were enjoying the freedom to run at the Instonians backs, providing Lightbody and Phil Moody with good chances. A few short corners went close mid way through the half, but things really opened up when rolling sub Matthew Corbett came on.

VALIANT DEFENDING

His best effort was deflected onto the Instonians crossbar from close range with Instonians managing to somehow clear the ball in the ensuing scramble.

Instonians too had their own chances from short corners, but valiant defending from Crooks, Hanna, Montgomery and William Barr kept the attackers out. Barr unfortunately later had to leave the field due to an injury when the ball struck his knee from a shot.

It was a fantastic first half performance by Ballymena, which was tainted only by the lack of luck to convert the many chances.

The turning point of the game came early in the second half, when Instonians pounced quickly on a sideline ball inside the Ballymena ‘23’, catching the defence off guard with a quick pass into the circle where the attacker slotted the ball past the helpless Alister Gibson to take the lead.

Ballymena rallied quickly to try and get the game level, but by this stage things were wide open with attack and counter attacks from both teams but it was the visitors who fell foul of two further Instonians chances loosing two more goals, one from open play and the other the result of a short corner.

Ballymena continued to play hard and fight for every opportunity and this spirit was rewarded with 7 minutes to go when Matthew Corbett deflected a long hit into the goal, to give his team a life-line. Ballymena would have scored again minutes later, but for some last ditch Instonians defending.

Captain Alister Hanna believes that Ballymena seconds will reap rewards in their upcoming matches after such a performance.

REAP REWARDS

“There was a real sense of pride and belief among us. Two performances worth commending are from our right and left backs, Aaron Murphy and Matt O’Neill, but the whole team fought hard.”

The seconds will play Mossley 6ths at home this Saturday. The team would like to thank Trevor Topping for travelling to umpire.

Seconds: A Gibson, A Hanna, A Crooks, M O’Neill, W Barr, A Murphy, P Moody, K Murphy, J Gibson, W Montgomery, M Corbett, M Lightbody.