Write a commentCambellians 1’s 3-3 Newry 1’s
Newry travelled to Campbell College for an early push back against Campbellians in their Anderson Cup 1st round match. Newry fielded an under strength side with 7 first team regulars unavailable for the game. The players who came into the squad really stepped up to the plate and helped make this game a great watch for the spectators.
Newry actually started the better of the two sides forcing a number of short corners early on with David England having two reverse stick shots saved well by the Campbellians keeper. The keeper was on hand again to some how keep out a deflected effort from Keith McWilliams which looked destined for the back of the net. Campbellians took advantage of Newry’s wastefulness in front of goal, scoring with their first short corner of the game beating Porter in the Newry goal. It remained 1-0 at the break.
Newry again started the brighter of the two sides and were quickly back on level terms when Keith McWilliams fired a ball forward which was smartly dummied by debutant and ever running Paul Henning for David England to latch on to and rocket his shot into the top corner. Newry were now creating a lot of chances on the break with Henning making space for the midfielders to move into and this again worked as Colin McKnight picked out McWilliams in the circle to deflect home Newry’s second.
It was really end to end now and Newry’s depleted side were showing signs of tiredness as the game was closing in on the final whistle. The home side pushed the game into extra time with another short corner with only a few minutes to go.
Campbellians looked the fresher of the sides in the extra period and took the lead with only 2 minutes played. Newry had to get back on level terms quickly as the silver goal rule was in place. David England was the man to step forward and drag them back to 3-3 with a bullet of a reverse stick shot with only seconds to go in the first period of extra time. Both teams were going for it but could not find the all important forth goal as the game ended 3-3 and the winner would be decided by penalty strokes.
Colin Henning stepped up first for Newry but could only hit the post as Campbellians converted their first. The rest of Newry’s stroke takers, Colin McKnight, K. McWilliams, David England and Jeremy Greer all scored but the home side were clinical and scored all their strokes which saw them into the next round of the cup.
Team: J. Porter, A. Baird, D. England, C. Henning, G. McCullough, R. Irwin, C. McKnight, J. Greer, P. Henning, K. McWilliams, E. Graham
