Newry Hockey Notes 1st February 2016

Newry 1sts 2-3 Portadown 1sts

Newry hosted Portadown on Friday evening hoping to build on the win the previous week.  It looked like this was going to happen as Newry dominated the opening exchanges.  The home side could not make the pressure count and were punished as Portadown scored a great goal from their first shot on target.  The visitors soon made it two capitalising on a mistake in the Newry defence against the run of play. 

Newry managed to get one back with captain Colin McKnight scoring a low reverse shot just before half time.

Newry again dominated possession in the second half but wastefulness in the final third would prove their undoing.  Portadown made it three midway through the half and then began to sit back to protect their lead having had a number of players sin binned.  Newry could not break down the stubborn defence until late in the match when Adam Foster popped up to deflect the ball home, however it was too little too late as Portadown went away with all three points. 

Team: F. Mcgivern, C. Henning, N. Liggett, A. Baird, N. McKnight, J. Taylor, R. Irwin, N. Davenport, J. Greer, C. McKnight, K. McWilliams, D. Andrews, K. McCombe, A. Foster

Newry 2’s 5-4 Lisnagarvey 2’s 

Rock bottom Newry played host to league leaders Lisnagarvey on Saturday, with more hope than expectation of taking something from the game.  ‘Garvey started the far better of the two sides showing their slick passing and fast movement which had got them to the top of the table.  They rushed into the lead with only 8 minutes gone in the game.  However Newry would not take this lying down and showed great fight to get back into the game racing into a two one lead midway through the first half with the goals coming from Simon McCafferty and Andrew Marks who took it in turns to set each other up for their goals.  Newry got their third just before half time with Adam Foster scoring a low hard slap from a short corner, the home side couldn’t have wished for a better time to score.

Garvey again flew out of the traps early in the half scoring from two short corners in quick succession drawing the game level.  The visitors had a strangle hold on the game now but a quick break by Newry which resulted in a short corner which was converted high into the net by David Andrews turned the tide.  Another Newry short corner was fired home with venom by David Hogg to give Newry a commanding lead with only a few minutes left.  However there was still plenty of excitement to come as Garvey scored a late short corner to make for a nervous last few minutes.  New keeper Josh Porter had to pull off an unbelievable last minute stick save to make sure Newry came away with all three points. 

Team: J. Porter, P. English, D. Hogg, D. Barlow, A. Megaw, M. McCullough, D. Andrews, A. Foster, S. McCafferty, A. Marks, J. Greer, C. Henning, A. Baird

Newry Olympic Ladies 1ST XI 1 – Newcastle 4

On Saturday 30th January 2016, Newry Olympic Hockey Ladies 1st XI played Newcastle at home in the Senior 3 Ulster Hockey League.  Newcastle were extremely quick to attack and scored in the first five minutes.  Newry fought back hard, even with a number of players out of their normal positions. However, two of the Newry players became injured leaving Newry to continue with ten players on the field.  Newcastle took advantage of this and won a corner from which they scored again securing a two nil lead.  Newry fought back but were unable to penetrate the Newcastle circle. At half-time the score was two nil to Newcastle.

During the second half Newry were able to field a full eleven players on the field again.  Newcastle were awarded a number of corners and put a lot of pressure on the Newry defence and scored a further two times putting them securely in the lead.  Newry kept their heads up and fought back hard and were awarded a penalty stroke from which Captain, Laverne Inns successfully scored.  Newry continued to play hard gaining a couple of corners but were unable to score again.   Player of the match was Gayle Davidson in defence.

Newry Ladies travel away to Enniskillen next Saturday 6th February .

Final score Newry Olympic 1 Newcastle 4 

Team: L Simpson (goals) DL Inns (Captain), D McMinn-Johnson, K Baird, V Steele, G Davidson, A Harpur, A Gamble, A Bingham, L Girvan, N Dickson and L Anderson.