Loughside 0
BANBRIDGE Town U11s (Lisburn League) swept aside Loughside in this six pointer.
A win which maintains their title challenge and sets them up for an exciting end of season climax.
With the weather playing havoc in recent weeks thi
s game was deemed to be a six point win because of fixture congestion and the Juniors knew that a win would catapult them within touching distance of the league leaders.
They played in glorious sunshine started with the usual early thrust by the Juniors. Downey was seeing a lot of the ball out left but the Loughside defence coped well with his crosses. Hamilton in midfield was playing the ball with acute accuracy through to the forwards and Angus was adjudged offside when ready to shoot.
It was all Banbridge and the opening goal came courtesy of a Hamilton free kick which flew into the net.
The Juniors continued to press and Downey soon added a second cutting in before placing the ball into the corner of the net.
Loughside were forced to change their keeper but before he had time to settle Duffin headed home from a Downey cross.
The flood gates were now open and when McCandless rifled a fourth goal the game was all but over.
The Juniors should have added more goals but Angus shot straight at the keeper and Downey blazed over in a rather one sided first half.
The last 10 minutes of the first half however saw the Juniors slack off which allowed Loughside into the game but for all their endeavour the Juniors defence easily coped with the threat.
The Juniors continued the second half by pressing forward but Loughside were a much better organised side than in the first and again made a goalkeeper change for the second time.
However it appeared that Loughside were happy to keep the score down and the Juniors found it difficult to break them down with the new keeper playing exceptionally well making three tremendous saves.
But the fifth goal eventually came when Downey hooked in his second and shortly after McKinstry put the icing on the cake when he thundered in an unstoppable shot from 25 yards.
Lennon and Barr had further chances to add to the score and Morgan just glanced his header wide but the match ended at 6-0 and a further precious six points for the Juniors.
TEAM: J. Cromie, R. Devlin, P. Morgan, J. McCandless, N. Dillon, S. Hamilton, D. McKinstry, J. McAtamney, R. Angus, C. Duffin, C. Downey, D. Barr, J. Lennon.
