Highs and lows for Northend United sides

The U12 Team beat the fancied Ballyclare Comrades team 5-0 under floodlights on Friday night, to maintain their top of the table status.

The U14 Team also maintained their good start to the season when they beat Antrim Rovers 3-0.

In the George Best Youth League, the U10 team continued their first season with a 1-9 defeat against a strong Ballymena United Team, before a large crowd of spectators at the Showgrounds.

UNDER-10

Northend 1, Ballymena United 9: Despite matching Ballymena United in terms of possession, Northend United still found themselves3-0 down by half-time.

Ballymena scored three more goals early in the second half, before Northend finally got on the scoresheet with a Stuart Lecky volley from an Aiden Graffin corner but Ballymena added another three to their tally.

MOM - Scott Sempey and Conor McGarry

Northend: L McAfee, A Graffin, C McGarry, B Scott, R Lennon, W Willighan, S Lecky, S Sempey, C Meneely, R Campbell, P Kyle, O Connolly, K Campbell, T McAuley.

UNDER-11

Northend 5, Barn United 6: Northend raced into a two goal lead through Daniel Bell when a perfectly timed run allowed him to lob the keeper and the other was an own goal from a defender.

Disaster struck after 15 minutes when Barn United scored two goals inside a minute and Northend found themselves 4-2 down at half time.

Northend came out in determined fashion in the second half, and Jordan Adams reduced the score to 4-3.

Northend then fell further behind when Barn scored to make the score 5-3. In a pulsating match, Northend pulled a goal back when from a corner, Jamie Stevenson was on hand to score with a perfectly positioned header.

It was all Northend now and they drew level with Barn United when an inch perfect cross from Daniel Bell allowed Matthew Kirk to head home at the near post.

Disaster struck again in the final minute when a Barn United striker was allowed to waltz into the Northend penalty box and beat the keeper with almost the last kick of the game.

MOM - Daniel Bell

Northend: R Lennon, J O'Loughlin, J Hayburn, A Shaw, A Campbell, M Irwin, J Stevenson, J Stock, J Adams, D Bell, R Hartnett, D McCalmont, M Kirk, R Gordon, K Babuszewski, S Williams.

UNDER-12

Northend 5, Ballyclare Comrades 0: The first goal didn't come to midway through the first half when David Kilgore received the ball 25 yards and unleashed an unstoppable shot.

Having survived a scare when Ballyclare hit the crossbar, Morgan played the ball up field and Zack Herbison waltzed his way through the defence to put Northend two up.

Northend increased their lead, when a flicked header from Kilgore to Herbison was passed to Philip Maybin who steadied himself to fire past the keeper.

United scored again, when a short corner was delivered into the box by Conor McHugh and there was Oliver Boyle to head home.

United scored their fifth when Robbie Dennison played the ball out of defence and Andrew Milligan out paced the Ballyclare defence to tuck it under their keeper.

MOM - Gareth Downey, Robbie Dennison

Northend: J Morgan, G Downey, R McKenna, J Crawford, R Dennison, P Maybin, C Graham, S Bennett, D Kilgore, Z Herbison, C McHugh, O Boyle, A Milligan, E Elliott, S Stewart, J Galbraith.

UNDER-13

Ballyclare Colts 4, Northend 1: Northend found themselves 2-1 down at half time – despite a sweet free kick from Leo Morgan - but an early goal in the second half by Ballyclare ended Northend's fight back.

Ballyclare went on to score another goal before the end of the match.

Northend: K Jaworski, R Ward, J Dawson, M Carberry, P Nowak, J King, A Reid, H Kilgore, L Morgan, E McCorkingdale, A Dubyna, C McCormick.

UNDER-14

Antrim Rovers 0 Northend 3: After a one week lay-off, Northend started in a commanding fashion and on seven minutes, from a Thomas Brady corner, David Bradley was on hand to volley into the net.

Northend doubled their scoring, when after some good exchange play between Stephen Hare and Jamie Speirs, a Speirs through ball to Ryan Gault put him clear of the Antrim defence and he made no mistake.

Northend scored the all important third goal with ten minutes of the match remaining, when Thomas Brady received a pass just inside the Antrim half and unleashed a thunderous shot which flew into the net, giving the keeper no chance.

MOM - Ross Swan

Northend: R Swan, J Donnelly, M Laverty, T Brady, N Swann, J Speirs, D Hamill, R Gault, S Hare, D Bradley, A McAvoy, N Shannon, A O'Donnell.

MINI SOCCER ACADEMY

The much acclaimed Northend United Mini Soccer Academy continues on Wednesday 13th October at Ballymena North Centre, 6.45pm to 8.15pm. Please contact John Devlin on 0791 9056834 for further details.