Full complement of Northend United Youth sides in weekend action

It was also a good week for Boydie Black’s U12 team who beat Roe Valley 3-1 in another top performance from the young side. Elsewhere in the NWCDYL both U11 teams hadn’t such a good day with defeats against Dungiven Celtic and Ballycastle United.

In the Lisburn Youth League, the U16s progressed to the quarter finals of the Shield competition, when they beat Hillsborough Boys by a 2-1 scoreline on Saturday, with a wonder goal from team captain Ryan McKenna securing the points for the Northend Blues. The U13s, U14s and U15s all lost their Shield matches and now look forward to getting back to League action next week.

In terms of the youngest members of the Club, both U8 teams made their competitive debuts on Friday night when they were involved in an IFA sponsored tournament at Ballymoney. This was followed by the U9s who were involved in the new IFA sponsored competition held at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Saturday morning.

Finally the week ended with the Club’s annual Golf Fundraising Day at Galgorm Golf Club which was well attended with record numbers.

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★Northend United and Youth U8s travelled to Ballymoney on Friday night for the opening week of the IFA tournament. They competed against teams from Ballymoney United, Ballymena United, Coleraine and Cloughmills in 12 minute games.

Both teams did very well and everyone battled hard, showed great skills, listened to their coaches and can’t wait to next week.

Northend United: L McDonald, C McCaughern, M Campbell, F McKay, C Swann, L Campbell

Northend Youth: G Donnelly, R McClintock, C Termania, J Patterson, D Hector, N McKeown, O McKeown.

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Both Northend United and Youth U9s were in action in the IFA mini soccer at Ballymena Showgrounds. Northend United won all their 5 matches and Northend Youth only lost one of their five matches, the big derby against the Northend United team!

Northend United: C Burnside, J Mark, C Hendron, C McKeown, P McAuley, L Devlin, O Maka and C O’Hara.

Northend Youth: S McDermott, D Patterson, K McAllister, PP Donegan, L Convery, C Reid, D Higgins, E Pirie.

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Northend United 6, Ballymena Youth 2: The early kick off against Ballymena was obviously too early for some of the Northend defenders who were caught out with a goal against them in the first minute and to the shock of the supporters Northend went two down in the third minute with more sloppy defending.

Shea O’Broin who pulled the first goal back with a fine left foot strike from the edge of the area. Ryan Campbell was making good progress down the right hand side and on one of his strong runs deep into the opposition territory he crossed for McKeown to finish at the near post to bring the scores level.

In the twentieth minute a neat move between McAvoy and O’Broin gave Ryan Campbell the space for a lofted long range shot which beat the unlucky Ballymena keeper. Half-time score 3-2

Ballymena came out strong in the second half but Northend set up fast counter-attacks which led to a chance for McKeown to finish from close range.

A shot from O’Broin resulted in a corner which McKeown took and scored to complete his hat-trick. Tyler Boyd was combining well with O’Broin in midfield and in the twentieth minute played a through ball to McKeown who slotted the ball into the corner of the net. MOM - Ryan Campbell.

Northend: PJ McDonnell, R Campbell, S Bristow, B O’Neill, J McKeown, S O’Broin, Z Erwin, T Boyd, C McAvoy

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Northend United 0, Dungiven Celtic 1: Over the last couple of seasons these teams have served up a number of memorable games and this was yet another to add to the list. Dungiven made the most of an early mistake by Northend when a long up-field clearance was allowed to bounce unchallenged and this cost the Blues dearly despite the best efforts of Curtis Wilson to deal with the striker’s shot on goal.

In the second half, a well worked corner between Magill and Tsang led to a cross into the Dungiven box, a half chance fell to Finton McAuley and the young defender looked to have smashed home a deserved equaliser before the Dungiven keeper produced an incredible one handed save to deny the Wee Blues. MOM - Jack Adams

Northend: C Wilson, D Magill, K Cosgrove, C McMillan, P Bristow, J Adams, O Campbell, L Hector, R Tsang, C McMurray, F McAuley

Ballycastle United 5, Northend Youth 3: It was perhaps against the run off play when Northend opened the scoreline through Niall Devine.

In the last five minutes of first half a couple of defensive errors saw Ballycastle go in front with two very good goals.

At the start of the second half Ballycastle seemed to have the upperhand and they took advantage of this with three goals in quick succession in the first ten minutes.

The last goal of the game came from Niall Devine who saw an opportunity with the keeper being off his line and chipped by the ball from 18 yards into the back of the net for his hat-trick. MOM - Jack Connor.

Northend: C Mellon; D Killough; J Connor; S Byrne; B Harkin; N Devine; C Martin; C O’Brien; C Lennon, S Crawford (s), L Allen (s)

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Northend United 3, Roe Valley 1: The first half was an even affair with Roe Valley taking the lead just before the interval.

The Northend Blues got their just reward when Calum Kilgore headed into the net from a corner kick levelling the scores. Northend pushed on and the impressive Pat Ferris storming from midfield taking on the Roe Valley defence.

It was from one of his runs that his shot fell kindly for Conor McGaughey to tap in for Northend to take the lead. It was all Northend and with only a few minutes to go Pat Ferris got his reward. He broke away from midfield and made it 3-1. MOM - Pat Ferris.

Northend: E McSparron, J Morrow, C McGaughey, J Montgomery, P Ferris, C Russell, C Kilgore, B Logan, R McKillop

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Lurgan Town 6, Northend United 0: Northend were 4-0 down at the break and were unable to prevent Lurgan from adding two further goals in the second half. MOM - Ryan Mark.

Northend: R Boomer, R Mark, C Meeke, C McDonald, J Kirkpatrick, J Givens, O Connolly, J Coates, M Stewart, R Gamble, J McQuitty, C Metrustry, C Killough, M Rainey

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Lisburn Youth 4, Northend United 2: Northend got off to the worst possible start after a mix up between a defender and their goalkeeper gifted Lisburn Youth an easy lead.Lisburn went 2 - 0 up 5 minutes before half-time and held on until the whistle.

Early in the second half, Robert Iovu scored a 35 yard wonder goal to give Northend a chance before Conor McGarry deservedly equalised with a cracking header at the far post. While on top, Northend did not score to go ahead and then created the cardinal sin and gifted Lisburn Youth 2 further goals to lose this cup-tie. MOM - Conor McGarry, Robert Iovu.

Northend: C Brennan, S Frew, S Lecky, R McCluney, J Brady, N Craig, M Willighan, R Lorimer, T Patchett (c), R Iovu, C McGarry, R Campbell, T McAuley, C Gordon, C Fullerton.

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Donegal Celtic 5, Northend 0: Northend were well beaten in this Shield match with their best chacne coming from Kuba Babuszewski who he somehow lofted the ball over the crossbar from a few yards out, as he met a Northend corner. MOM - Declan Dobbin

Northend: J Mark, B Millar, J Wharry, D Dobbin (c), A Shaw, J Stevenson, B McGarvey, J Adams, J Penny, K Babuszewski, A Campbell, M Kirk, E McLaughlin.

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Hillsborough Boys 1, Northend United 2: Zack Herbison opened the scoring for Northend when he was on hand to score into the bottom corner of the net after the Hillsborough keeper brought off a good save from Cameron Neilly’s well struck shot.

Northend doubled their lead after 25 minutes with a contender for goal of the month when team captain Ryan McKenna hit a free-kick from inside his own half and watched it sail into the top corner of the Hillsborough net.

Northend were made to pay for missed chances in the second half as Hillsborough pulled a goal back when the their striker was given time to turn in the box and plant the ball into the bottom corner of the Northend net.

Northend had further chances from Herbison and Jamie Houston before the end of the match but the entire Northend team saw out the remaining minutes of the match to earn a hard fought win.

This was another good display from Northend with Dennison, McAllister and McKenna all having very good games.

Northend: B Cairns, J Galbraith, L McAllister, R McKenna (c), R Dennison, C Graham, T Campbell, S Bennett, J Houston, Z Herbison, C Neilly, M Waide, S Olliver, M Mucka

GOLF FUNDRAISING DAY

Northend United Youth were again delighted with another excellent day’s golfing at their annual Fundraising Day, held at Galgorm Castle Golf Club on Sunday.

With numbers up on last year’s attendance and the weather staying almost dry, a number of golfers have already been enquiring on what date next year’s tournament will be held.

A full report will be included in next week’s Northend notes but the Club would like to extend their thanks to Rodney Campbell and Phil Hanlon for making this event such an enjoyable part of our annual sporting calendar, Tony Shaw for all his help on the day and not to forget our very own ace photographer Mark Herbison.

Golf Competition Winners: Overall Winner – William Dunlop; Members Winner – Mickey McAuley; Nearest to Pin – Raymond Smith; Longest Drive – Jordan Lemon.