No seventh heaven for men’s sides in heavy defeats

Ballymena 1, Ballynahinch 7: Although Ballymena have lost their two previous encounters with this Ballynahinch side, there was a still sense that a victory could wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility.

Ballymena started well and dominated possession, for a time, with continued passing and fluid movement. Unfortunately for Balymena though, with only five minutes on the clock, the Hinch men attacked the Ballymena goal vigorously and opened the scoring on the break.

Ballymena gathered themselves though and stepped up their game at times outplaying their opponents in mid field for most of the first half. Unfortunately Ballymena’s domination of the pitch was not reflected in the score line and the visitors edged ahead with their second goal just before the break.

As play restarted, Mark Allison and Craig Davies continued to press hard whilst Andrew McKelvey worked hard to contain the threat from the Ballynahinch midfield.

Ballymena worked the ball well though and were starting to get back into this game through some ingenious attacking play by Clive Fulton. The partnership he formed with Craig Davies led to the Ballymena goal when the latter, who found himself with acres of space, calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the Hinch net.

The Ballymena goal seemed to wake the sleeping beast for their response was a lightening two goals in quick succession.

A fifth goal followed and Ballynahinch were now very much in the driving seat.

Ballymena did snatch a second goal following some good link up play by Shields and Lowry who had been taken for granted by the Ballynahinch defence. Similarly, on the wing, Lorimer too was left unmarked and managed a well placed shot at goal.

As the initial attempt was saved it fell to Mark Allison to ‘do the honours’ although this was little consolation at this late stage of the game. In reply Ballynahinch scored, twice, in quick succession which left Ballymena deflated.

SECONDS

Ballymena II 4, Lisnagarvey VI 7: Ballymena travelled to Lisnagarvey on Friday night hopeful of a victory to bolster their current 4th place league position and avenge their earlier home defeat, at the hands of Garvey.

The visitors got off to a bright start and, after the briefest passage of play, Ken Murphy connected with a ball which had been drilled into the circle. The resulting contact sent the ball high into the corner of the Garvey net and edged Ballymena ahead with only some 46 seconds on the clock.

Unfortunately for Ballymena though the hosts came right back at them and soon drew level from a short corner1-1. In a period of tit-for-tat Ballymena came out on top, following a goal mouth scramble, courtesy of Phil Nicholl 2-1. Ballymena’s midfield of Wenban, Barr and Monteith were matching Garvey stroke for stroke and another goal soon followed, when a speculative shot from Ken Murphy was deflected into the net by the host keeper 3-1.

Garvey clawed themselves back into the game, just before half time, with their second goal 3-2 . . . to the visitors!

Following the restart Ballymena managed to contain the Garvey threat for the opening ten minutes but the equaliser followed a short time later.

The game continued end to end with further goals being added for both teams, first Garvey and Ballymena’s fourth from a brilliant deflection by Mark Montieth for 4-4. The tide of this match turned, in favour of the hosts, following a penalty flick which was just out of reach of a brave effort from James Birrel 4-5.

Garvey struck twice more, with clinical precision to take the tie beyond the reach of their weary opponents. Seconds: J Birrell(GK) D McDowell, D Bradley, E Archer, A Hanna(C) D Wenban, B Wenban, P Moody, B Martin, M Monteith, P Nicholl, K Murphy, W Barr.