Write a commentNewry 1's 3 Mossley 1's 1
Newry got their first points of the season on Saturday when they hosted fellow struggler’s Mossley at the Belfast Road venue. Both sides new this was a big game and the opening exchanges showed a bit of cageyness with neither team able to take control of the game. As the half wore on, it was the home side who grew in confidence and were starting to create opportunities. It was the Newry men who struck first when John Taylor was able to fire home a low drive from a short corner. The home side was now on top in this game and they went further into the lead when they converted another short corner, this time Colin McKnight finished off for a well deserved two goal advantage.
It looked like Newry were going to go in at half time with this lead, however, Mossley had different ideas as they scored from a short corner of their own to narrow the deficit.
Newry started very sluggish in the second half as the away side pushed for the equaliser, helped by some poor passing and marking by Newry. Keeper Francis McGivern was called on a number of times to keep his time in the lead with a number of fine stops. Great work by Colin McKnight and a defence splitting pass from Robert Irwin led to Newry's third as David Andrews latched onto Irwin's great ball to slide the ball under the advancing keeper. With time running out it looked like Mossley's belief was also diminishing as Newry finished strong and came away with all three points.
Team: F. McGivern, N. Davenport, N. McKnight, D. England, C. Henning, C. McKnight, J. Taylor, A. Gilmer, K. McCombe, R. Irwin, K. McWilliams, D. Andrews, M. McCullough
Newry Thirds 3 Kilkeel 0
The Thirds cruised to a comfortable home win over near neighbours Kilkeel at home on Friday night with the result being wrapped up midway through the second period.
It was professional performance from back to front for James Niblock’s side who maintained their title tilt in what has been an impressive season so far. The win was inspired by a Man of the Match performance by 15-year-old Mark McCullough who dominated midfield and set up two of the three goals.
There were plenty of chances at both ends in the opening exchanges but with Newry keeper Eddie Graham on form and a defence well marshalled by the experienced Steven Auterson, Kilkeel found little by way of goalscoring opportunities.
The hosts took the lead midway through the first half when McCullough got into the circle to set up captain Niblock to fire home from close range just 20 seconds after coming onto the pitch. That was the way it stayed until half-time and with the tie very much in the balance, Newry were well aware that they needed to raise their game after the interval.
They did just that and 15 minutes into the second period they doubled their lead when young starlet McCullough burst past a number of challenges for the umpteenth time in the match before getting to the byline and having the awareness to spot Scott Blakely unmarked and the winger had the simplest of tasks to sweep the ball home to make it 2-0.
Just a few minutes later, the result was put beyond any doubt when Willie Hogg rolled back the years with a stunning penalty corner effort from the left of the circle that flew past the Kilkeel keeper.
It was a case of seeing the game out from a Newry point of view at that stage and despite coming under plenty of pressure late on, a combination of some excellent goalkeeping from Graham and stout defending from the aforementioned Auterson along with full backs Andrew Baird and Craig Rooney, the clean sheet and a well-deserved three points were secured.
Team:
Newry: E Graham, G McCullough, S Auterson, A Baird, C Rooney, Mark McCullough, A Foster, D Liggett, A Collum, W Hogg, S Blakely, Michael McCullough, J Niblock
Newry 2's 3 Lisnagarvey 3's 1
Tenth league game of the year for Newry Olympic Hockey Club 2XI in Junior League 1 against Lisnagarvey 3XI at home (29/11/2014). Result Newry 3 Lisnagarvey 1.
Newry began the game in blistering style with a full squad of 15 available at their disposal. Newry controlled the game from the off with David Hogg controlling the tempo of the game from the back and injecting some aerial balls to a Lisnagarvey defence who could not deal with the outlet. Newry’s 3 forwards continued their good run of form with some hard work off the ball and some excellent movement when in control of the play.
The breakthrough came for Newry through Andrew Marks with the opening goal from close range.
The first half ended with the home side 1 goal to the good. Newry where extremely comfortable in the first half creating a lot of opportunities to score without Garvey ever really threatening.
The second half of the game began and Newry continued with some good movement and creating chances. Front man Simon McCafferty scored his fourth of the campaign when he mishit a penalty corner that deceived the 'Garvy keeper. Newry then 2.0 up began to take the foot of the pedal and allowed Garvey chances to get back in the game results in the visitors eventually scoring. Newry with 5 minutes left to go earned another penalty corner from a Warren Adams run from inside the 23 meter line. Newry sweeper David Hogg then came up from the back to dispatch the short corner to make it 3.1 to the hosts much to the debate of the visitors,
The result mean the Newry now sit on 14 points and in Fourth place in the Junior 1 table.
Team: S. Henry, D. Hogg, W. Adams, D. Liggett, S. McCafferty, P. English, K. McWilliams, A. Dale, A. Marks, J. Gregg, D. Barlow, A. Foster, M. McCullough, N. McGuffin, D. Andrews
