Newry Hockey Notes 20th February 2017

Newry 1’s 6-3 Mossely 1’s

Newry hosted Mossely on St Valentines night in a must win game for the home side.  Mossely had won the first fixture between the two teams 4-0 earlier in the season and Newry knew they had to make amends.

The visitors started the better of the sides with plenty of possession but had very little penetration.  Newry were sitting back and playing compact waiting to hit on the counter attack.  With 15 minutes gone Newry drew first blood when they broke away and Colin McKnight found Kris Fletcher at the back post for a simple tap in.

Mossely tried to reply but still could not find a way past a stubborn home defence.  With 25 minutes gone Newry really stepped up a gear and fired home three goals in five minutes to stun the visitors.  The first of which came from Colin McKnight with another tap in at the back post.  With the very next attack Newry got their third, this time it was David Andrews who showed quick reactions to deflect home the ball after the initial shot had been saved by the keeper.  The visitors attempted to hit off and were immediately pressured by the Newry forwards who won the ball back and pushed forward with Kris Fletcher firing home from the top of the circle. 

With the last hit of the first half Mossely won a dubious short corner which they slotted home to leave the score 4-1 at the break.

Newry began the second half as they played the first, staying compact at the back and hitting on the counter attack.  Their fifth goal came ten minutes in when Keith McWilliams picked up the ball in front of goal after good work from Robert Irwin and somehow managed to shovel the ball over the line.  Mossely managed to pull another one back through another short corner before Newry notched up their sixth of the game with David Andrews getting his second of the match.  The scoring wasn’t finished here however as Mossely got a late consolation goal to leave the score 6-3 to Newry.  This was the best performance of the season by the home side who showed their attacking quality as well as their organisation in defence.

Team: J. Porter, N. McKnight, D. Hogg, C. Henning, J. Greer, C. McKnight, R. Irwin, M. McCullough. D. Andrews, K. McWilliams, K. Fletcher, A. Baird

Newry Ladies 1-0 Ballynahinch Ladies

Goal Scorer: Kathryn Baird 

Newry 2’s 4-3 Down 3’s

Goal Scorers: Adam Foster x 2, David Andrews and Simon McCafferty