Wakehurst U-17s record stunning victory over Glentoran

In the performance of the week, the U17s were involved in a thrilling Friday night match against one of the League favourites and top Irish League side, Glentoran in the Elite National League.
Northend United under-12s, who were beaten by Lisburn Distillery last week.Northend United under-12s, who were beaten by Lisburn Distillery last week.
Northend United under-12s, who were beaten by Lisburn Distillery last week.

The Ballymena Boys eventually won 3-2, after trailing 2-1 at half-time, with Stephen Hare scoring a brace of goals and Ross Swan scored the other to get the U17s season up and running.

Manager Glenn Speirs was full of praise for his team, saying: “The boys have been putting in some hard work in training and it’s really paid off tonight. This was a good team performance with a number of the players looking really impressive against the more experienced Glentoran side.

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“This result gives us a good building block to launch the rest of our season and send a message to the rest of the League about the wee team from Ballymena.”

Also in the National league, the U15s lost their midweek match against Glenavon.

Elsewhere in the Lisburn Youth Invitational league the U13s continue to impress but are failing to convert chances when they are on top. They lost two matches in the week against Lisburn Youth and Irish League Academy side, Portadown, both by a 2-1 scoreline.

The U12s and U14s also lost against Lisburn Distillery’s sides respectively but continue to improve their performances.

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A number of the younger teams were in action against Larne Youth at the weekend and all the teams turned in really good performances. Both U10s teams continue to look really impressive as they prepare for League kick off next Saturday while the U8s also enjoyed their run-out against Larne Youth but their League starts one week later on Saturday 28th September.

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Larne Youth 2, Northend 10: In a re-arranged fixture from the previous weekend, Northend United U10s travelled to Sandy Bay for a game against Larne Youth’s unbeaten reserve squad.

In the end, the young Ballymena side were just that little bit sharper in front of goal and all of the squad adapted well to playing in a number of different positions.

Jay McKeown and Lewis Hextor both made a good impression on their debuts and with the league starting next week it’s great to see this young group of players continuing to develop.

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Northend: R McGrath, D Magill, K Cosgrove, J McKeown, J Adams, P Bristow, O Campbell, L Hextor.

Larne Youth 4, Northend 8: It was no surprise that Larne went 2-0 up in the first five minutes. This spurred Northend into action and then scored a brace through through Sam Crawford to draw level then went further infront with goals from Dara Killough, Ben O Neill, Conor McKillop and Ciaran Martin.

Larne scored a couple of late goals before Northend added a few more.

Northend: D Killough, S Crawford, B O’Neill, C McKillop, C Martin.

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Northend 2, Lurgan Town 6: After trailing 2-0 at the interval, Northend got an early break through when a superb ball over the top from Connor McDonald was taken in his stride by Matthew Stewart who raced through on goal and coolly finished in the bottom corner.

This should have given the boys the impetus to go and dominate the second half but strangely they retreated again and found themselves 6-1. Three more goals followed from Lurgan. Northend did get a consolation goal when Charlie Metrustry was upended in the box and the resulting penalty was despatched by Oisin Connolly. MOM - Oisin Connolly.

Northend: S Higgins, C Meeke, J Kirkpatrick, O Connolly, J Coates, C Metrustry, C Forsythe, J Lyness, R Gamble, C McDonald, M Stewart, C Killough, J Scullion.

Midweek result: Northend 2, Lisburn Distillery 4.

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Northend United 1 LIsburn Youth 2: AFter losing 2-1 to Portadown in midweek, Northend were missing a number of players and were dealt another blow when they also lost Ruairi Campbell halfway through the first half, with a broken wrist.

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Against the run of play, Lisburn Youth went into the break one goal ahead after converting a half-chance.

The Ballymena boys replied in the second half when Tom Patchett superbly dispatched a free kick into the top corner, with his trusty left foot, but LIsburn scoreed the winner woith seven minutes left. MOM - Conor McGarry.

Northend: C McGarry, S Frew, S Lecky, R McCluney, C McDonald, N Craig, T Patchett, J Brady, T McAuley, R Campbell, J Mitchell, M Willighan, C Gordon, P Kyle.

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Glenavon 4, Northend 0: Northend travelled to Lurgan on Wednesday night, for their third away match in a row, to play Glenavon on the 3G, The boys were full of confidence after their great performance in their last match but a bigger Glenavon team took control of the game. This was a disappointing display from the lads who know they can do much better. MOM - Eamonn Elliott

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Northend: E Elliott, L McFall, R McKenna, R Dennison, O Boyle, G Stewart, L McCann, A Milligan ,S Bennett, Z Herbison, B Cairns, J Kirkpatrick, C Bolton, J Dawson, S Olliver, C McLauglin.

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Wakehurst 3, Glentoran 2: The match began at a hectic pace but midway through the first half Glentoran took the lead.

Wakehurst gathered themselves up and took the game to Glentoran and got their equaliser when Stephen Hare headed home, giving the Glens keeper no chance.

Nearing the end of the first half Glentoran again took the lead, although Wakehurst keeper, Ryan Gault made a great save, the player following in blasted his shot into the top corner of the net.

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With time running out in the second half, Wakehurst made a tactical adjustment and with ten minutes remaining, up popped Ross Swan at the near post to nod the ball into the net to level the score at 2-2.

Wakehurst kept pushing and with five minutes to go the tireless Stephen Hare ran on to a through ball to slip it past the Glens keeper and give Wakehurst their first win of the season.

Northend: R Gault, R Sloan, N Swann, R Swan, K McCollum, T Brady, J Cameron, J Speirs, K Jackson, C Waring, S Hare, J Nixon, L Scroggie.

FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

Northend United’s much acclaimed Football Development Centre starts again this Friday night, 20th September, at the Clough MUGA for boys and girls aged 4 to 10 from 6.00pm to 7.30pm. All players need to be registered before this date as no registrations will be accepted on the night. For more information, call John Devlin on 07919056834.

NORBEV SPONSORSHIP

The Manager and players of the U17s would like to thank Norbev Ltd for their on-going sponsorship of energy drinks for the team this season.

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