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Cliftonville 1’s 1-7 Newry 1’s
Rock bottom Cliftonville hosted Newry on a blustery Saturday game with an earlier than normal pushback at 1pm. The early start seemed to have affected Newry as they weren’t able to play their fluent and fast passed game. The away side dominated possession throughout the match and were camped in the Cliftonville half for long periods, however a mixture of poor finishing and great goalkeeping frustrated Newry. Kyle McCombe opened the scoring for Newry 20 minutes in before Richard Nummy double their lead just a few minutes later. This eased the Mourne men’s frustration as they started to play slightly better. Colin McKnight got the third of the game with a well worked short corner to give Newry a three goal lead at half time.
Newry flew out of the traps and got their forth with only minutes gone in the second half with John Taylor firing home. Again Newry piled forward and had the majority of the play and soon it was 5 with Taylor getting on the score sheet again after some great interplay between the Newry forwards. Cliftonville got a consolation goal from a short corner with 10 minutes to go but it was too little too late. Kyle McCombe is enjoying a rich vein of form in front of goal as he completed his hat-trick with two quick late strikes to give Newry a great 7-1 victory away from home.
Team: J. Glass, D. England, N. McKnight, J. Greer, N. Davenport, A. Gilmer, C. McKnight, C. Henning, R. Irwin, K. McCombe, R. Nummy, J. Taylor, N. Liggett, D. Andrews
Newry Olympic Ladies 3 - 4 Cooke Ladies
On Saturday, 14th December, Newry Olympic Hockey Ladies 1st XI travelled to Shaws Bridge, Belfast to play Cooke Ladies 1st XI for their last match of 2013 in the return away game of the Senior 4 league. Newry won the toss and were immediately on the attack but Cooke were just as quick to retaliate with a goal scored in the first two minutes. Newry picked up the pace, kept the pressure on and were awarded two short corners in the first ten minutes with Captain Laverne Inns, centre forward, scoring from the second to equalise with Cooke. Both teams were constantly fighting back with chances on both sides and two minutes later Newry were awarded a flick due to one of the Cooke players preventing Caralyn Ferris, right mid, scoring from a short corner. Caralyn did the Newry side proud planting the flick in the bottom left corner of the Cooke goal putting Newry into the lead. Cooke scored again on a break during the 17th minute but Newry were quick on the break and as the ball was fed through to Laverne Inns, she passed it to Laura Girvan, left mid, who drove up to the circle and found herself one on one with the Cooke goalie. Laura dragged the ball to the left and found Kathryn Baird, left wing, who finished the ball putting Newry back into an equalising position. Half time score 3 all.
Newry and Cooke came out strong during the second half and both sides continued to battle on until the 32nd minute when Cooke were awarded a short corner and switched the ball scoring and putting Cooke into the lead at the final whistle. .
Final score Newry 3 - 4 Cooke
Team: C Waddell, D L Inns (Captain), A Gamble, C Gamble, G Mc Loughlin, R Ross, L Ervine, C Ferris, J Cochrane, N Shields, L Girvan and K Baird.
Newry 2’s 0-7 Cookstown 2’s
Newry got off to a good start in this one and the teams looked evenly matched for the first 15 before Cookstown got control of possession and opened the scoring from a hard drive into the centre forward on the flick spot for a deflection around keeper Henry. At this stage Newry were forced into moving Scott from his sweeper berth into Centre Midfield as the dynamic Conor Cadogan was forced out of the game by a disgusting challenge by the Cookstown sweeper. That this was the third such challenge, unpunished by the umpire, and no apology was offered as the Newry man was carried off to go to casualty speaks volumes. The same player continued in the same vein throughout and was eventually involved in a scuffle that saw the match blown up early - pushing his forehead onto that of a Newry player reacting to yet another off ball bodycheck.
The second goal came at a bad time for Newry just before the break and the third just after ended this one as a contest. Cookstown racked up three more in quick succession as Newry pushed on looking for a goal. The pattern was similar for all their goals, ball moved across the pitch, ball hard into the forward for a deflected finish or one on one with keeper Henry who needed better protection from the 10 Newry men in front of him.
It wasn't all bad for Newry, seven goals between the teams was harsh as Newry had around half a dozen short corners with the keeper making two great saves and a further two from open play. There was some good interplay at times and all the elements are there to make a solid team. Final score Newry 0 Cookstown 7.
Team: Newry S. Henry, B. Scott, S. Blakely, D. Barlow, J Gregg, A. Foster, C. Cadogan., W. Adams (c), K McWilliams, D Hogg, S. McCafferty subs J McWilliams, A Henning
Mossley 1-3 Newry
Newry travelled to “The Glade” to face Mossley in an important game as the Mourne men are still in the hunt for a promotion spot. From the off Newry could not get going and where under constant pressure straight away, but with the experience and top notch tackling of McGaffin, Sterritt and the excellence of Elmore in goal, there was just no way through. It was on the half hour mark when Newry went ahead with their first meaningful attack of the game when father and son duo Michael and Mark McCullough linked well for Mark to blast the ball home.
Newry hoped to make it to half time a goal to the good, it was not to be. Mossley got into a wide left position inside the circle and a cracking reverse stick shot left Elmore with no chance just on the blow of halftime.
Second half was no change from the first. With Mossley again raining in the attacks and only for the heroics from Elmore in nets, Newry should of been 5 maybe 6 down.
Newry got another opportunity coming from a SC. With the first strike coming back off the pads, Michael McCullough was first to react and cleanly dispatched over the keeper and into the back of the net. 2-1 Newry!
However the tide still hadn’t turned and Mossley again upped the pressure. It was just not their day and then, Cometh the hour cometh the men. It was the 60th minute when David Sterritt came surging out of defence taking on three players and finding a cracking pass to Glyn Elias who with the cleverest of first time passes found Mark McCullough who (in the circle) found another great first time pass to his dad to bury the ball, deep into the back of the Mossley net,
Newry held on for a superb smash and grab 3-1 win. Next up Instonians at home.
Team: P. Elmore, J. Lawson, A. McGaffin, D. Sterritt, I. McNeil, P. Moffett, S. Garvey, A. McMinn, M. McCullough, G. Elias, M. McCaigue, M. McCullough, R. Rooney.
