The 1st match of four in the Northabbey Cup Group B saw us travel away to play Shorts. With the league now in the bag it was time to put or focus on to this Cup.
We started very slowly and were certainly not at our usual best. We were sloppy with our passing and slow to close down but we did manage to take the lead in the 8th minute when Noah Crenshaw set up Reece Atkinson who put the ball in the back of the net; 0:1 Ards. We continued to play hot and cold this was certainly not the performance we have came to expect as they have been on the ball all season. We managed to double our lead in the 27th minute with a super piece of individuality from Ryan Hannah when he received the ball on the left hand side from a pass by Joel Hill Ryan skipped inside and dance past the defence along the edge of the box and then despatched a low accurate shot past the keeper into the bottom left hand corner; 0:2 Ards.
HALF TIME: 0.2
The half time talk was all about how poor our football was in the first half and to step it up a gear in the second half.
So they did they went out and controlled the second half from start to finish. The third goal came in the 52nd minute with a great strike from Matthew Guest from the edge of the box; 0:3 Ards. We grabbed number four in the 68th minute Matthew Guest set Reece Atkinson up for his second goal of the match; 0:4 Ards. Then 8 minutes from time we made it five when Joel Hill send the ball through for Jack Patterson to latch on to and with his pace no one was catching him as he went on to put the ball in the net; 0:5 Ards.
FULL TIME: 0.5
Managers Comments:
Not one of our better performances but we never looked in trouble and got the three points. We need to step it up for the other matches to come.
