Sponsorship boost for Carniny Youth sides

With the club seeing their three year kit deal with Michelin Tyre Company PLC coming to an end during the summer they were naturally eager to have another high profile corporate sponsor to adorn their playing kits.

John Mulholland, proprietor of Mulholland scrap metals gladly steeped into the breach and subsequently offered the club a lucrative three year sponsorship deal which will see the Mulholland brand printed on the club's home shirts for the next three seasons.

The Shanksbridge based company are one of the foremost companies in Northern Ireland, recycling all types of metal products and managing over 40 thousand tonnes per year of waste materials for consumers, industry and demolition.

The club has seven full sided teams which play in the Northern Ireland National League and as a result Mulholland's will have their shirts seen all round the Province.

It is sponsorship deals like this that enable Grass Roots football clubs such as Carniny to continue to provide a safe, friendly and professional environment for all local children in and around the Ballymena Borough.

This is the first in a series of four important sponsorship deals that the club have secured in recent weeks. Full details of the remaining three will be announced when finalised.

Meanwhile, match of the day for the Carniny Youth sides in action on Saturday was undoubtedly the under 11s' tight 4-3 win over Castle Juniors in Belfast.

Performance of the day though must be the under 13s who continued their unbeaten run with a comprehensive 4-2 win over Limavady United on their own 'turf.'

UNDER-9

Carniny 7, Portrush 0: Hunter started the scoring after five minutes, Mearns then added another two and Hunter rounded off the half with his second.

Stewart soon added another two from long range. Robinson finished off the scoring with a tap in after fine work from Stewart.

Special performances also came from Young, Farquhar and Lamont in defence to keep a clean sheet and fine work from White in midfield.

Carniny: Farquhar, Lamont, Robinson, Young, Stewart, White, Hunter, Mearns.

UNDER-10

Carniny 1, St Mary's 4: St Mary's made the most of their early pressure and went up 1-0.

Carniny came close a couple of times with Clyde forcing their keeper to make good saves from his free kicks; he also hit the bar in the second half.

The second half was much the same as the first with St Mary's the more committed going forward and they raced to 4-0 in front before Archer scored a late consolation goal.

Carniny: Ja Logan, 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.

UNDER-11

Carniny 4, Castle Juniors 3: In the opening minutes it was Castle who started the brightest and opened the scoring after eight minutes.

This gave the reds a wake-up call and 5 minutes later they were level when Stewart scored with a chip over the keeper.

Carniny then continued to dominate the first half and with 2 late goals from Young they went to half time 3-1 to the good.

Castle got a goal back on 55 minutes however Carniny kept going forward and Stewart got his second of the game when he poked home during a goalmouth scramble.

Castle did not give up and scored with two minutes remaining but Carniny held on for all the points.

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

UNDER-13

Carniny 4, Limavady United 2: Carniny made it three games unbeaten with a fine team performance earning all three points in this National League fixture.

Carniny started at a high tempo and had a few chances before Limavady took the lead on 15 minutes after Carniny failed to clear their lines.

The lead was short-lived however and on 25 minutes the ever energetic McDonnell was on hand to slot home a goal following good work from Shevlin and Balmer.

Ten minutes into the second half, Campbell put his side in front with a shot from the edge of the box then after 20 minutes the impressive Balmer cut in from the left to fire into the far corner of the net and give his side a more comfortable lead.

With eight minutes remaining though, a defensive mistake let in United to score and set up a tense finish but Carniny raised their game and with three minutes remaining Shevlin broke through and toe poked past the advancing keeper, ending any thoughts of a comeback.

Carniny: Marquess, McCullough, Killough, Rowe, Weir, Campbell, Fyffe, McDonnell, Balmer, Shevlin, Millar, Sharpe, Ballentine.

UNDER-15

Carniny 0, Oxford United 2: Carniny travelled to Londonderry, with a skeleton team due to injuries and sickness, and kept the score to 0–0 until about ten minutes before the end of the first half when Oxford scored twice.

Carniny: T Holmes, D Agnew, J Johnston, A Henry, A Rainey, D McComb, K McCartney, J Watson, S Galloway, K Beggs, G Dunlop.

UNDER-16

Carniny 1, Limavady Youth 0: Despite making hard work of this match the under 16s still came away with the three points against the Roesiders at the Showgrounds.

The reds started the match playing some neat passing football but were guilty of rushing their play in front of goal.

They continued to apply pressure and got their reward 15 minutes into the half when a Black corner found Carson unmarked in the middle of goal who made no mistake in nodding home from close range.

Limavady came into the match towards the end, hitting on the break, with Curry in the Carniny goal denying them an equaliser on a couple of occasions by expertly tipping over the bar.

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