The under 14’s suffer only their second defeat of the season in a poor perfomance against Lisburn Distillery
Saturday 22nd November 2014 – Lisburn Invitational Junior League under 14’s
Downpatrick FC 1 v Lisburn Distillery 4
Downpatrick went into this game after a mini break looking to make up for the two points they dropped against today’s opponents in their last league game but it was the ‘Whites’ who came away with all three points.
Lisburn Distillery started on the front foot, pressing the Downpatrick defence from the start giving them no time on the ball to get into the game. Every time the Downpatrick defence cleared the ball into midfield it came straight back at them, with the Distillery midfield controlling the game and setting up wave after wave of attack. They forced the Downpatrick goal keeper Shane Campbell into action early when they attacked down the left wing, there winger got the ball into their striker who got a shot away but the Downpatrick custodian had it covered.
From Campbell’s clearance the ball came back down the same wing, the Distillery winger taking the ball into the corner and whipping in a cross to the back post to their striker who was unmarked at the back post to nod home. On 20 minutes Distillery won a corner, which Tom Smyth cleared to the edge of the box only to find a Distillery player who then hit a first time shot that gave Campbell no chance.
As the half wore on Downpatrick started to get into the game, with Eoin Rooney and Philip Doran working tirelessly against a strong defence. Downpatrick won a string of corners, and Ruairi Quinn delivered the perfect cross for Brandon Boyd to finish at the front post. Downpatrick then pressed for the rest of the half and definitely finished the half the stronger of the two although they were reduced to long range efforts but the ‘Whites’ keeper was in fine form.
Half Time: Downpatrick FC 1 v Lisburn Distillery 2
Downpatrick started as they finished the first half, pressing the Distillery defence but to no avail and again Quinn and Rooney were restricted to long range efforts. On a rare attack Distillery drove down the Downpatrick left wing, when Ryan Cassidy put the ball out for a throw in. Form the resulting throw Distillery played the ball into the Downpatrick box, Boyd went to ground with a perfectly timed tackle winning the ball, but the referee seen different and awarded a penalty to Distillery. To which Campbell had no chance as their midfielder struck the ball into the top corner of the net.
Downpatrick never recovered, although Smyth and Tom Fitzsimons worked their socks off they couldn’t get their team back into the game. Smyth moved into midfield but the Distillery defence stood up to everything Downpatrick threw at them, and with the ‘Greens’ chasing the game Distillery struck again to make it 4 – 1.
