Ballymena Hockey Club round-up: Men stay on goal trail

From the off, it was Down who settled into their rhythm the quickest when they took a shocked Ballymena side completely by surprise to score their opening goal after only five minutes of play – a rasping drive that skipped beyond a desperate lunge from Ed Hampton, the Ballymena keeper.

This goal woke Ballymena from their slumber, and a well-worked set piece from a penalty corner by Pat McKeown afforded Tory Alexander the opportunity to slot the equaliser home for the hosts.

Down countered and scored again to take the lead in this exciting tie, where both sides posed a threat on the break and seemed capable of scoring from any angle.

This was end-to-end hockey at its best, and Ballymena responded to score two goals in quick succession with Tory Alexander rifling in Ballymena’s second. followed by a third sweet reverse stick effort from Pat McKeown.

McKeown rounded off a fine Ballymena counter by shooting beyond the visitors’ keeper to leave the score at 3-2 for the hosts going into the break.

The hosts played some superb attacking hockey, and Tory Alexander was instrumental in carving out this Ballymena onslaught when he completed his hat-trick with a tasty run and cool finish to give the hosts a comfortable 4-2 cushion.

It was left to the McKeown brothers to round off the scoring for Ballymena. Pat rifled in Ballymena’s fifth from a penalty corner, high into the roof of the net, and Alex virtually burst the net with a pile driver from the edge of the circle.

Down weren’t finished though, and clawed two goals back from two penalty corners to finish the match at 6-4.

This score slightly flattered the visitors given the home side’s match statistics, in terms of possession and attempts at goal.

Ballymena: Eddie Hampton, Chris Hogg, Andrew Bell, Andrew Shields, Tory Alexander, Vic Orr, Alex McKeown, Pat McKeown, Andrew McKelvie, Matt Corbett, Tim Lowry, Mark Allision, Andrew Crooks, Matt O’Neil.

Ballymena II 0, Lisnagarvey VI 3: Ballymena Seconds hosted Lisnagarvey 6th XI on Friday night at the Showgrounds.

From the off, it was the visitors who enjoyed the bulk of the possession, and Ballymena were struggling to create any clear openings for themselves.

Garvey were already pressing the Ballymena defence hard, and to be fair, the partnership of Aarin Murphy and Al Donald did offer a formidable resistance which foiled the visitors attempts at goal on numerous occasions during the early stages of the game.

But Lisnagarvey are a formidable outfit, and their sheer physicality enabled them to gain a foothold on a game where Ballymena looked second best. Garvey’s persistence eventually paid off though, and a strike from a short corner offered them the advantage going into the break 1-0.

Following the restart, the hosts did come close, but the Garvey counter resulted in their second goal from a short corner, to dash Ballymena’s hopes of mounting a comeback.

Garvey twisted the knife shortly after with their third from a period of open play, and put the tie beyond the reach of a disappointed home side.

Thanks again go to Davy Lorimer for continuing to umpire, and to Phil Nichol and Clive Fulton for coaching from the sidelines.

Seconds: Eddie Hampton(GK), Alister Hanna(Capt), Dave Bradley, Andy Boyd, Ken Murphy, Al Donald, Aaron Murphy, Mark Monteith, Paul Harvey, Phil Moody, Steven Healy, Matt O’Neill, Paul McDowell.

LADIES

Ballymena 4, Greenisland 0: After an away win in Ballyclare last week Ballymena Ladies’ confidence was running high, and this was evident from the off.

A mazy individual run from Kirsten Young tore the Greenisland defence to shreds in the first minute of play, and Clare Gillespie was unlucky not to have put the hosts in front when her shot from the edge of the circle was blocked by the visitors’ keeper.

However, the visitors rode this 10 minutes of pressure and Ballymena found themselves having to defend from a Greenisland corner.

Indeed, but for the alertness of Sara Allen, who produced one of the best blocks you will ever see, the hosts could have found themselves on the wrong side of a goal deficit.

Mid-way through the half though, both sides seemed to go off the boil and the game descended into a rather scrappy affair with neither side creating any scoring opportunities.

Step up Becky Renolds who, so often, can be relied upon to inspire her colleagues with her flair, and determination Kirsten Young and Aimee Logan too got in on the act and Natalie Mullan and Lauren Kennedy were both unlucky not to have broken the deadlock before half time.

The second half would see Ballymena’s fortunes change courtesy of Reynolds, who slotted the opener home when a through ball from Lauren Kennedy was deflected into her path.

Playmaker Reynolds broke through the visitors’ defence, passing to Lauren Kennedy who neatly flicked the ball on for Clare Gillespie, who made sure she would not be denied a second time as she made it 2-0.

A few minutes later, Sarah McBride in midfield linked up with Lauren Kennedy to feed the ball to Nat McMullan, who came out on top following a tussle with the Greenisland keeper to reverse flick the ball into the back of the net for Ballymena’s third.

The fourth was nothing more than Lauren Kennedy deserved following a blistering run and classy strike to round off the scoring.

Ballymena: Emma Leslie, Sara Allen, Grace McBurney, Jenny Sutherland, Catherine McCracken, Sarah McBride, Becky Reynolds (captain), Clare Gillespie, Natalie McMullan, Aimee Logan, Kirsten Young, Lauren Kennedy, Leah Paul

North Down II 1, Ballymena II 0: Ballymena travelled to North Down 2nd XI for their first league encounter of the season.

As the match progressed, it was clear that both these sides were very evenly matched. Possession changed hands in turn with both sides countering .and neither able to find a leak in the others defence. North Down might have had a slight edge, in the first half, courtesy of one or two penalty corners against none for Ballymena, but the hosts never really posed much of a threat.

Ballymena did break through the Down defence on a few occasions, but never found themselves in a position to test the hosts’ keeper.

Similarly for Ballymena, when called upon, their defence easily contained any threat in a half where goal scoring chances for either side were at a premium.

After a goalless first half, North Down opened the second period with slightly more vim than Ballymena could muster, and again won several penalty corners.

By this stage, it was clear that whichever side opened the scoring would eventually win this tie, which was by no means a classic performance by either side.

Sure enough a short time later, following a goalmouth scramble, Down managed to snatch a goal which owed more to the hosts’ perspiration rather than their inspiration.