After last weeks N.I.B.F.A. Cup win it was back to league duty with an away tie against Larne Youth at Three Milewater with a 10am kick off.
We started the match brightly and were unlucky not to take an early lead when Ryan Hannah watched his header come of the crossbar after just 6 minutes. A minute later and we were in front, Matthew Guest sent over the cross which was met on the half volley by Noah Crenshaw and his shot hit the back of the net 0:1 Ards. We kept pushing forward and creating chance after chance without an end product, then in the 18th minute it looked as if we had doubled our lead when Matthew Guest sent over the corner which was met by Jack Patterson at the front post but the Larne defender cleared it of his line only to hit it off his own player and the ball went over the goal line as the boys were about to celebrate they realised the Referee hadn't given it as he wasn't positioned to see the ball cross the line so it was game on and 0:1. Four minutes later we did double our lead, again the assist was from Matthew Guest as he sent over the corner and Edward Muldrew met it with his head and into the net it went despite the close attentions of the Larne keeper, 0:2 Ards. We were now playing some good flowing football and everyone was now looking to increase our lead. In the 36th minute Stuart Hannah saw his shot fly just over the crossbar, Edward Muldrew hit his shot straight at the keeper & Matthew Guest saw his attempt from a free kick go over the crossbar. Then in the 39th minute we grabbed number three, another Matthew Guest corner was cleared by the Larne defence only as far as the edge of the box where it was met by Jordan Mulholland, he does what he normally does in that situation and smashed a low shot inside the right hand post, 0:3 Ards.
HALF TIME: 0 . 3
Our half time talk was about play more passing football in the second half and work together as a team.
Two minutes into the second half with a wonderful bit of passing football by five players would lead to the Birthday boy Stuart Hannah grab his first goal of the season to make the score 0:4 Ards. It was time to give our subs a run out with Caleb Surgenor replacing the ever reliable Edward Muldrew in the 45th minute. Five minutes later Reece Thompson replaced Stuart Hannah. In the 60th minute Curtis Higgins replace the hard working Ryan Hannah and in the 75th minute Sam Kelly finally made is debut by replacing the impressive Noah Crenshaw. It was all one way traffic at this stage but we just couldn't add to our goal tally. The back four were comfortable all game and Jai Sykes certainly had one of his best games in goal this season.
FULL TIME: 0 . 4
Managers Comments:
Well done boys another good performance and some nice football played, the only downside is we need to be more accurate in front of goals.
Coaches Comments:
Robbie McGarry
Well done to Ards FC u16s collecting another 3points today against Larne u16s with a 4nil win sorry could not be there
