Woods the Hero in Seconds Win

Sunday 2nd October

Bann II 4-3 Garvey II

A new look twos squad came together to take on Junior League One and Irish Junior Cup champions Lisnagarvey at a wet Havelock Park. Thomas Sturgeon and David McCracken stepped up from the thirds to make their seconds debuts.

The game started off at a frantic pace with Bann having several attacks into the Garvey circle and winning a couple of short corners. However they failed to make the breakthrough. Garvey soon came back into the game and took the lead from open play when Bann were caught too high with the Garvey forward sweeping the ball past the helpless Appleton. Bann were rocked with conceding and soon found themselves two down after a well taken free hit was worked into the circle and finally deflected in. Bann were now under increasing pressure and conceded their first penalty corner which was dispatched into the net by way of a drag flick.

With a mountain to climb Bann managed to pull a goal back just before half time when the experienced McAnulty forced his shot onto the post which then rebounded into the net off a stranded Garvey ‘keeper.

Bann took the ascendancy of their goal into the second half and created several good moves down the right flank before Scott McCandless and Philip Doyle created a couple of chances for Bann, one of which lead to a short corner. Scott Caruth stepped up to drag flick the ball into the top left corner. Bann continued to exert more pressure on the Garvey defence and equalised when Josh Moffett swept the ball over the Garvey keeper with his reverse stick. With Bann now in control they took the lead when the ball broke to young Rory Woods and he slotted it into the goal from an acute angle.

Moffett was causing Garvey several problems in midfield and Bann were unlucky not to go further into the lead. With ten minutes to go Garvey came back into the game and applied some pressure on the Bann defence although they failed to test Appleton. Bann held out for a well deserved victory and couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season.

 

.