Under-13s produce best display of week from Northend United sides

The U14s began to look like the team who turned in some super performances last season, when they narrowly lost to two late goals in their Shield match against Shankill Juniors on Saturday. However the U12s were not so lucky in their Shield match, when they lost to a very good Carrick Rangers team Elsewhere in the National League, Glenn Speirs U17s lost their Friday night match 2-0 against the Maiden City Academy, conceding the second goal with the last kick of the game. The U15s lost their Derby match 4-1 against Ballymena United, before a sizeable crowd of spectators at Smithfield. In the North West and Coleraine and District League, Northend’s second U8 team made its debut against Institute, before eventually losing 4-3 while the other U8 team earned a creditable 2-2 draw with Ballymoney United. The U11s beat an U12 Moyola Olympic team 5-3 but it’s back to the drawing board for both U10 teams who suffered defeat at Limavady United and Bertie Peacocks Youths respectively Finally on Friday night, the Club’s Football Development Centre continued at the Clough MUGA with over thirty boys and girls enjoying their first steps in football, under the direction of Northend’s Football Development Officer, John Devlin. UNDER-8 Ballymoney 2, Northend 2: Against the run of play Ballymoney got the lead but were quickly pegged back by a Callum Burnside goal. Northend started the brighter in the second half and it wasn’t long when they scored again with the help of a deflection. To their credit, Ballymoney levelled the score. MOM - Callum Burnside. Northend: P Murphy, A McPeake, J Mark, P McAuley, C Burnside, D Patterson, C McKeown Institute 4, Northend 3: The excitement of the day seemed to get to Northend as they were 4-0 down at half time. To their credit they came out second half and were a different team. Callum Hendron opened the scoring for Northend, quickly followed by Pol Pius Donegan, to leave the score 4-2. It was all Northend at this stage of the game and it wasn’t long before Conlón Lyness added another goal to make the score 4-3. MOM - Lewis Devlin. Panel: K McAllister, D Elliott, L Devlin, C Lyness, PP Donegan, C Hendron, S McDermott UNDER-10 Northend 1, Limavady 5: Northend conceded two goals inside the opening four minutes and after playing their way back into the game, they were hit with a killer third just before the interval. With Northend tiring in the second half, Limavady extended their lead but Northend pulled a goal back through last season’s top scorer Peter Bristow. MOM - Peter Bristow. Northend: R McGrath, D Magill, K Cosgrove, J McPeake, N Devine, J Adams, P Bristow, O Campbell, L Hextor. Bertie Peacocks Youth 5, Northend 0: Northend produced a fine performance in this match, even if the score does not reflect it. MOM - Stevie Bristow Northend: C Wilson, S Crawford, J McKeown, B O’Neill, S Bristow, C McKillop, TP McGurk, D Killough, J McFetridge, K Campbell Moyola Olympic 3, Northend 5: After a scoreless first half, Northend conceded two early second half goals before Pierce Esler pulled one back. Moyola extended their lead with a long-range shot but substitute Jordan WIlson scored tiwce to level the scores. Jamie Montgomery scored a half-volley to put Northend ahead and in the last minute, Harry Wylie made it 5-3. MOM - Pat Ferris. Northend: C Mellon, R McMillan, H Wylie, C Campbell, P Esler, J Morrow. R Tsang, C McMillan, C McGaughey, P Ferris (c), J Wilson, J Montgomery UNDER-12 Northend 0, Carrick Rangers 6: Northend contributes to their own downfall by conceding two careless goals in quick succession in this Lisburn Youth League cup tie but they showed they can compete at this level and with a little luck and a bit more composure a win is surely not too far away. MOM - Ross Gamble. Northend: S Higgins, C Killough, O Connolly (c), C Meeke, J Coates, C Forsythe, C Metrustry, C McDonald, M Stewart, R Gamble, J Lyness, J Scullion. UNDER-13 Carrick Rangers 1, Northend 2: Northend deservedly took the lead on 17 minutes when after being assisted by both Sam Frew and Robert Iovu, Thomas McAuley put Northend one nil up. In the second half, Northend were awarded a penalty when Robert Iovu stepped up to hit the penalty, but unfortunately struck the spot kick wide. However, when the Ballymena side were later awarded another penalty, Josh Mitchell stepped up and hammered the ball into the top left hand corner before Carrick pulled the score back to 1-2. MOM - Sam Frew, Robert McCluney. Northend: C McGarry; S Frew; S Lecky; J Mitchell; R McCluney (c); J Brady; N Craig; R Iovu; T Patchett; M Willighan; T McAuley; P Kyle; C Gordon; C Fullerton; C McDonald UNDER-14 Shankill Juniors 5, Northend 2: Daniel Bell gave Northend the perfect start the lead after four minutes when he latched onto a poor defensive pass and ran on to slide the ball past the Shankill keeper. But after Shankill equalised, they took control of the game and scored tiwce more before the break. Daniel Bell pulled a goal back from the Blues shortly after half time but they couldn’t fashion an equaliser and Shankill ran in two late goals to leave a rather flattering 5-2 scoreline. MOM - Josh Mark. Northend: J Mark, A O’Boyle, J Wharry, A Shaw, G Macartney, J Stevenson, A Campbell, S Hutchinson, J Hayburn, K Babuszewski, D Bell, J O’Loughlin, M Kirk, T Evans, L McLean, E McLaughlin. UNDER-15 Northend 1, Ballymena United 4: Northend’s first home game of the season at Smithfield didn’t go according to plan and they found themselevs 3-0 down at the interval. Ballymena scored a fourth in the second half before Northend pulled one back when a free kick was awarded 25 yards out which Bradley Cairns curled in and the keeper could only palm it in to the net. MOM - Robbie Dennison, Liam McCann. Northend: E Elliott, L McFall, R McKenna, O Boyle, R Dennison (c), G Stewart, B Cairns, L McCann, J Kirkpatrick, Z Herbison, A Milligan, S Bennett, C McLauglin, S Olliver, J Anderson, J Dawson, M Waide. UNDER-17 Wakehurst 0, Maiden City Academy 2: Wakehurst travelled to Castledawson to play their home match against Maiden City Academy at Mill Meadow 3G, on Friday night. Maiden City started the brighter team but the back line were keeping them at bay, while the midfield of Speirs, Cameron, Brady and McAvoy were battling hard for every ball. Chances for either team were at a premium, throughout a lively first half encounter, but with neither keeper being seriously worked, the half time score remained 0-0 Into the second half and with Ross Swan replacing McAvoy and a change in formation, Wakehurst looked a different side than the first half, with Jamie Speirs and James Cameron beginning to dominate the midfield battle. Wakehurst should have taken the lead after ten minutes of the half, when Speirs found himself with only the keeper to beat, following a good pass from Stevie Hare, but he mistimed his shot, allowing the keeper to make a good save. Thomas Brady and Ross Swan were working overtime to give the Ballymena boys width on their wings. However a mistimed back-pass from midfield allowed a Maiden City striker to meet the ball, infront of the Wakehurst defence and run on to slip the ball past Ryan Gault in the Wakehurst nets. Wakehurst began to throw everything they had at the Maiden City defence and Niall Swann was unlucky to see a goal-bound header from a Brady free kick, saved in below the crossbar by the Maiden City keeper. However with minutes of the match remaining, Maiden City added a second goal after a poor pass from a Wakehurst player allowed the Maiden City striker the simplest task of scoring. Full time score 2-0 Wakehurst were below par in the first half but a much improved second half performance left them feeling like they deserved something out of this game. Some good performances from Speirs and Hanlon on his debut but top performance this week goes to Niall Swann for another outstanding defensive display. Man of the Match: Niall Swann Northend: R Gault, R Sloan, J Hanlon, M Laverty, N Swann (c), K McCollum, T Brady, J Cameron, J Speirs, K Jackson, S Hare, A McAvoy, R Swan, L Scroggie, J Nixon FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT CENTRE Northend United’s Football Development Centre continues on Friday 11th October at the Clough MUGA for boys and girls aged 4 to 10 from 6.00pm to 7.30pm. For more information, or to reserve your child a place on the course, please call John Devlin on 07919056834 LLOYDS COMMUNITY AWARDS Northend United Youth FC is through to the final four in their Northern Ireland region for the Lloyds Bank Community Awards for 2013. Our project is based on a Friday night grassroots football coaching project, based at the Clough MUGA The Club can earn substantial funds for football equipment if we finish in the top two in our region. To allow us to achieve this, we need as many votes cast as possible for us in the following two ways: SMS Texting. This is charged at normal text costs with no premium attached. Please text VOTE VKNA to 62229 to register your vote. Email – log into www.lloydsbankinggroupcommunities.com/communityfundNI and record your vote for our Northend United Youth Club.