Northend United 0 Cookstown Youth 4 Saturday 6th December 2013
Northend found themselves on the wrong end of some strange refereeing decisions in this match, which effectively killed off any chances they had of getting a result in this match.
As early as the tenth minute the young referee awarded a penalty against Northend for a very dubious incident in the Northend box, as a corner was taken. The Cookstown striker made no mistake with his kick.
Cookstown doubled their lead on fifteen minutes when they scored a goal from what seemed like an offside position.
After the early decisions going against them, the Blues settled down and began to play their football. In defence, Robbie Dennison, Ryan McKenna and Jack Anderson began to assert themselves and Caolan McLaughlin was unlucky to see a shot go inches wide of the Cookstown upright. Following some good Northend pressure, a Bradley Cairns corner should have lead to a goal for the home side but somehow a Cookstown player cleared the ball off the goal-line, without a Northend challenge going in. Half time score 2-0
The second half was only minutes old when Cookstown got the goal that killed off the match. A good move down their right wing found their striker clear of the Northend defence and as the Northend keeper, Lewis McFall came rushing out, the striker slid the ball past him into an empty net.
Cookstown went four up when the Northend keeper misjudged the flight of the ball from a free-kick and the ball ended up in the back of the net.
However the Northend heads didn't drop and a great thoughball to Zack Herbison saw him outpace his marker and as he raced down on goal, he was hauled back by the centre half. Again the young referee missed the incident much to the displeasure of the home spectators. Both teams kept attacking to the end of the match, without any further scoring. Final score 4-0
Panel: L McFall, J Anderson, R McKenna, R Dennison, C McLaughlin, O Boyle, B Cairns, S Bennett, M Waide, Z Herbison, S Olliver, L McCann
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Northend United 0 Carniny Youth 1 Saturday 9th November 2013
Northend U15's hosted neighbours Carniny Youth at Ballymena Showgrounds on a nice sunny Saturday morning. Carniny won the toss and Northend started the match but within two minutes Carniny had taken the lead. Poor defending allowed Carniny's left winger have a shot from inside the box but the ball went skyward and when it came down again, their midfielder headed it back to the winger who shot from ten yards and the ball ended up in the net.
Once again, Northend were too static at the start of a match. After this the game started to settle down and Carniny were trying to break through on every occasion but their forwards were too hasty and kept getting caught offside. On the few occasions when they did beat the trap, the Northend defence of Cairns, Dennison, McKenna and Anderson were able to get back with some timely tackles and Elliott in goals was very quick off his line to clear the danger. Northend did have a couple half chances and a Cairns lob from his own half just bounced over the Carniny bar. The score remained 1nil to half time. Half time score 0-1
Carniny kicked the second half off with both teams giving nothing away and Carniny still trying to break the offside trap without success and Northend running at Carniny's back line but both defences holding strong. Herbison had a good effort from just inside the box which the Carniny keeper did well to turn away and then a hooked shot from Boyle on the edge of the box bounced off the Carniny crossbar. However Carniny weren't going to be outdone and they too had a shot hit the bar. it looked like Northend should have been awarded a penalty when Herbison nipped into the box only for a Carniny player to barge into him but the referee waved play on. The game ended with a 1nil win to Carniny. Final Score 1-0
Men of the Match: Eamonn Elliott, Bradley Cairns, Robbie Dennison
Panel: E Elliott, J Anderson, R McKenna, R Dennison, B Cairns (c), O Boyle, L McFall, L McCann, A Milligan, J Kirkpatrick, Z Herbison, S Bennett, C McLauglin, M Waide, J Dawson
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