South Antrim 6s 1-3 Newry Olympic Ladies 2s

A very determined Newry Olympic Ladies second team turned up at Friends’ School in Lisburn on an extremely cold and early Saturday afternoon as they drew South Antrim Ladies 6ths in the first round of the Junior League Shield.

From the start, the game was hard work, facing physical opposition.

It took Newry a good 10 minutes to get into the game, seeing multiple turnovers and big tackles in the midfield. However, strong attacking pressure resulted in the first penalty corner to Newry, with Ali Benson injecting to team captain Laverne Inns who finished strongly with a great strike to the bottom right putting the visitors into a one nil lead.

The second quarter saw South Antrim retaliate with some strong forward play across the Newry goal and the eventually slipped the ball past the Newry keeper Alissa Rocha-Cromie.  Towards the end of the second quarter right back Jodie Freeman slipped the ball through to mids Naomi Dickson and Sarah Irwin, who drove up the pitch with quick one-twos and fed the ball to Ali Benson at the edge of the circle who got a strong shot away. Laverne picked up a fantastic rebound swing in mid-air and made sure the ball was slammed into the back of the net.

Half time, and 2-1up, the Newry team was full of confidence, but the lead was slim and the game ongoing.

The home side were strong and determined in their defence. Even with 85% of the possession, Newry struggled to get the ball into the 'D' and over the goal-line. The last 15 minutes were tense as South Antrim had a couple of brilliant counter attacks but the Newry sweeper, Chrissie MacAuley came out with the ball every time and fed the ball through to Emma McCullough and Rebecca McFarland in defence.

Newry went on the attack again with Caragh McGaffin driving up the left mid and slipped the ball across to Katie McFarland which put the home side under more pressure. A beautiful high, looping reverse shot on goal from right wing Sarah Knight went unfortunately high, but Jessica McCullough superbly stopped the resulting South Antrim hit out and crashed the ball so hard at the home defence that it was deflected into the home goal and at the final whistle the 3-1 scoreline stood in Newry's favour. The stronger Newry team had won!

Credit goes to the second team debutant goalie, Alissa Rocha-Cromie who stepped into the goalkeeper role bravely for the first time and more than held her own.