All Lisburn Burney Cup semi-final between Wallace and Friends

The derby clash will be on Wednesday at Lisnagarvey Hockey Club with a 2.00pm start.

Having already reached the semi-finals of the pre Christmas McCullough Cup Wallace will be hoping to go one better and play in the final for the first time since winning the competition in 2001.

Portadown College were the opponents last Wednesday in a quarter final played on the excellent surface at Edenvilla.

They had already won the Prior Shield this season and with two Irish under 18 players in their ranks and a large crowd supporting them on their home territory, were a potential banana skin for this young Wallace side.

The Lisburn lads started the half strongly and created chance after chance in the first ten minutes but were continually denied by outstanding saves and poor finishing. They also had a goal disallowed as the umpire deemed the ball not to have crossed the line.

Daniel Nelson settled the nerves with a good finish from a through ball after 25 minutes but Wallace were rocked when Portadown scored minutes later from a second phase penalty corner after Fraser Rodgers produced the initial save.

Into the second half and Wallace appeared to have another legitimate goal wiped out after 30 seconds as the other umpire this time believed the ball had struck Conor Kelly’s foot.

This did not deter the team and Conor’s brother Ross stepped up to put an unstoppable penalty corner drag flick into the net to make it 2-1 to Wallace. Fraser Rodgers in the Wallace goal again came to his teams rescue making two superb saves, the last of which involving a spectacular dive and tip around the post. This enabled Conor Kelly at the far end to give Wallace some breathing space as he tapped in from short range.

Again the brave Portadown team came back at them and scored to make it 3-2 and ensure a nervy finish to the game for the Lisburn school, before Conor Kelly made the game safe with an easy finish after a great passing move involving Stephen Murray, Timmy Crean and the excellent Daniel Nelson.

A lack of recent match practice was evident due to half term and the coaching team will be looking for some quality sessions and match practice in the run up to the semi final.

In other cup games, the under 13s produced an excellent display to defeat Friends B team in their second round Bannister Bowl game. The goals were shared among the players with Ben Nelson (2), Martyn Chivers, Craig Getty, Scott McCabe, Nicky Acheson, Andrew Clarke, William Carey and Joel Beckett on target. They will now travel to Cookstown High School in the quarter finals, while the under 15X1 face Royal and Prior next Tuesday at Lisnagarvey HC, 2pm start in the Richardson Cup on the back of an excellent 3-1 win over Sullivan Upper in a friendly game last Saturday, Sean Murray, Alex Nye and Callum McCandless the scorers in this fixture.