An almost perfect weekend for Reds

IT was an almost perfect day for Carniny with seven wins and a draw for the Ballymena boys.

Highlights of the day were undoubtedly some super results in Northern Ireland's elite National League with the 15s coming back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Newry City whilst the 16s also came back from a goal down to beat neighbours Chimney Corner 2-1 courtesy of a last minute penalty from Carson.

There were big wins for the 13s and 14s against Institute and Warrenpoint respectively as the 9s, 10s and 11s all had narrow victories over Limavady, St Patricks and Aquinas.

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Carniny 1, Limavady 0: Carniny added another victory to their unbeaten run with a 1-0 win against Limavady's U10's.

The decisive goal came early when Hunter scored his third of the season straight from a corner inside the first five minutes.

Carniny: Logan, Farquhar, Robinson, Young, Lamont, Rea, Stewart, Hunter, Mearns, White

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Carniny 4, St Patrick's 3: Carniny took the lead with a Stewart goal half-way through the first half albeit against the run of play.

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St Patrick's were controlling the midfield battle and the constant pressure as well as a couple of well taken chances meant they went 2-1 up.

Carniny played lots of counter attacking football, and it was all even when Stewart got his second of the game to make it 2-2 before half time.

The second half saw most of the game being played in the Carniny's half, and a long range strike made it 3-2 to St Patrick's.

A good run down the right wing from Farquhar set up Campbell to get the equaliser. The last 5 minutes were very tense with St Patricks pushing hard for the win, but when a clearance from Clyde went to Archer he ran from well inside his own half to fire the winning goal into the roof of the net with virtually the last kick of the game.

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Carniny: R Donnelly, S Gaynor, M Winter, S Clyde, M Kirk, J Logan, J Parker, J Campbell, A McMullan, D Archer, C Stewart, A Farquhar, R Ervine, J McQuillan, C Gordon.

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Carniny 2, Aquinas 1: In a replay of last season's league cup final, Aquinas started the better and went up 1-0 in the 12th minute.

This was exactly what Carniny didn't want, but the boys battled well and kept the score at this until the 28th minute when Stewart latched onto a loose ball in the Aquinas box and prodded home to equalise.

Carniny began brighter in the second half but weren't producing much. That was until the 38th minute when Stewart again got the ball in the Aquinas half and headed straight for goal, unleashing a truly unstoppable shot coming off the bar and bouncing in for what prved to be the winner.

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Carniny: Montgomery, Dobbin, Neilly, Reid, Marshall, McHenry, Young, Lemon, O Boyle K, McDonnell, Stewart, Downey, Leetch, Wylie, O Brien, O Boyle A.

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Carniny 2, Limavady 5: It didn't take Limavady long to get a foot in the game and they took the lead on 12 minutes when their striker fired over the top of O'Neill, and they added two more goals in quick succession.

Carniny struck back on 23 minutes when a high kick from O'Neill was flicked on by Keenan for Doherty to race through and slide the ball past the Limavady keeper.

Unfortunately for Carniny it was Limavady who had the ball in the net again right on the stroke of half time.

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In the second half Carniny where a much improved side and it wasn't long before they scored.

The goal came early in the half when Doherty battled hard to win the ball before firing a screamer past the keeper from a tight angle to make it 4-2.

Despite Carniny pressure however the goal never came, and with 2 minutes remaining Limavady scored a fifth.

Carniny: O'Neill, Adams, Evans, Houston, McGall, O'Mullan, Stewart, McNeill, Swann, Doherty, Keenan, Neilly, Anderson, McGarry, McComb.

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Carniny 5, Institute 2: Weir got the 'reds' on track after 5 minutes with a rather cheeky goal, flicking home with the outside of the boot from a Balmer cross.

'Stute equalised on 10 minutes but the busy Miller regained the lead for the Ballymena boys on 20 minutes with a shot from the edge of the 18 yard box.

Into the second period Carniny continued where they left off and eight minutes into the restart Carniny extended their lead through Miller.

The introduction of substitutes saw Carniny continue to dominate with Ballentine and McKendry fitting in well in defence whilst Mairs, Sharpe and Moore did not look out of place with the latter netting twice to put the gloss on a good all round performance.

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Carniny: Marquess, McCullough, Killough, Weir, Rowe, Fyffe, Campbell, McDonnell, Bamber, Shevlin, Miller, Mairs, Sharpe, Moore, McKendry, Balentine

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Carniny 7, Warrenpoint Town 2: First half goals from Calderwood and Cummings – each scoring twice - with Warrenpoint hitting two made it 4-2 in favour of Carniny going into the interval.

Strong defending from Carniny's back four made way for Calderwood to hit his hat-trick.

Then in the later minutes Nixon scored and Calderwood got his forth to put in a strong finish for Carniny.

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Carniny: Gillespie, McClean, Graham, McNiece, Pogue, Agnew, Nixon, Hughes, Lemon, Calderwood, Cummings, Scroggie, Kirk, Gamble, McMath

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Carniny 2, Newry City 2: Newry scored twice with two cracking first half strikes, and but for several brilliant saves from keeper Holmes, the half time score could have been worse.

The second half was a different story, as Beggs scored to make it game on, this gave Carniny a lift, as they upped the pace and were soon level when a McCartney free kick found the back of the net. Carniny hit the post twice, forced an excellent save from the keeper and hit the bar in the last ten minutes, but it was to remain 2-2 at the final whistle.

Carniny: Holmes, Agnew, Johnston, McClure, Henry, Galloway, McComb, Watson, McCartney, Dunlop, Beggs, Rainey.

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Carniny 2, Chimney Corner 1: A Carson penalty was enough to split these two teams at the final whistle, with Carniny fighting back after 'Corner took the lead ten minutes in.

This didn't deter the reds who continued to press the Corner defence and got their equaliser after earning a corner which wasn't dealt with and was fired back into the box by McAllister for McKelvey to fire home from the six yard line.

Carniny then went ahead just two minutes into the second half when Millar was clipped from behind as he weaved his way into box with Carson stepping up to fire home the resultant penalty.

Carniny: Curry, Dunlop, White, Black, Todd, McAllister, McClenaghan, Hood, Carson, McKelvey, Armstrong, Apsley, Williamson, Millar, Reid, McClean.