By Iain Hannah | Sunday 6th January 2013
League turn around and Ards play host to Abbey Villa at Londonderry Park looking to avenge the 4.1 defeat they suffered at the beginning of the season.
With a change in the usual formation 4-5-1, we went for a 3-5-2 which was tried out in the second half against Rosario. This would be the key to the match with Captain Brandon McFerran at right back, Matthew Guest at Centre Back & Jordan Mulholland at Left Back, these three boys controlled everything at the back and Keeper Jai Sykes was linking with them well, they passed the ball well between them and when needed took no chances and cleared there lines. The five man midfield consisted of Ryan Hannah on the right wing, Reece Atkinson at inside right, Joel Hill moving up to play centre midfield, Edward Muldrew in inside left & Marcus Baron on the left wing. Our midfield was in total control of the match throughout and some great pass and move play which created a lot of chances and goals. The two boys leading the frontline were Stuart Hannah and Noah Crenshaw, who worked hard and well together chasing everything that came their way and on the bench were Ben Appleton & Aaron Graham.
We started the match very quickly on the front foot and within 5 minutes Noah Crenshaw saw his shot go just wide, the boys were certainly up for it and were looking for goals. Next chance fell to Joel but he scuffed his shot and it was easy enough for the keeper to gather. Then 16 minutes in Edward Muldrew saw his shot come off the left hand post with the keeper beaten but a goal was coming and it did in the 20th minute when Ards earned themselves a corner, the ball came over and was flicked on by Joel Hill into the path of Edward Muldrew who put the ball in the back of the net to score his 5th goal of the season and put us 1 : 0 up. Three minutes later we thought we had doubled our lead when Reece Atkinson had the ball in the back off the net but the Referee was quick to blow him offside and rightly so. Ards kept up the pressure on the Abbey Villa defence and went 2 : 0 ahead in the 25th minute when Marcus Baron got free on the left played the ball into the box to Stuart Hannah who controlled the ball and squared it for Noah Crenshaw to put into the net, then a minute later Noah doubled his tally, this time Matthew Guest came forward with the ball played a defence splitting pass through for Noah to run on to and Noah camely despatched the ball into the net, 3 : 0 Ards. Then in the 31st minute came the goal of the match and probably goal of the season so far even though Brandon is renowned for this type of goal but the football that lead to the goal was exceptional when Reece Atkinson gathered the ball played it out to Ryan Hannah on the right he checked the defender and passed back to Reece, Brandon was racing forward screaming for the ball and Reece obliged by laying the ball back to Brandon who let rip with a 25 yard shot into the top right hand corner of the net, 4 : 0 Ards. Then a minute left before half time and again Reece Atkinson would score only to see the Referee rule it out for offside and again correctly called by the Referee. This was a first half totally dominated by the Ards boys who meant business.
HALF TIME: 4 . 0
Half time team talk was simple “more of the same but keep your heads and don’t get to cocky”.
The second half got under way and Ards were in no mood to let Abbey villa get back into the match, two minutes in and Ards got a penalty when Brandon let go with another long range effort on goal only for it to come off the Abbey Villa defenders hand and the Ref pointed to the spot immediately. Up stepped our regular penalty taker Reece Atkinson who hasn’t missed from the spot this season and he didn’t disappoint as he coolly slotted the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net sending the keeper the wrong way, finally he gets one that counted, 5 : 0 Ards.
Five minutes later and it was 6 : 0, Joel Hill scored his first goal for Ards when Reece fired over a cross to the back post and Joel headed it into the net, he deserved his goal as he had 3 or 4 chances prior to that but didn’t take them. We were force to make a sub in the 45th minute when Edward Muldrew pull up with a calf problem on went Aaron Graham for his 2nd match as he had been out three week with injury. Aaron had a chance to score his 1st goal but only managed to hit the keeper with it. Our 2nd sub Ben Appleton came on in the 55th minute for the hard working Marcus Baron. Ards kept going forward in search of more goals but Villa hung in there. Five minutes from the end of the match Villa got their best chance of the match and as the ball seemed goal ward bound Jai Sykes who had been a spectator for most of the match got up to tip the ball over the crossbar, superb save.
FULL TIME: 6 . 0
Managers Comments:
Well done boys a superb display of football today every single last one of you wanted it and the scoreline shows that. Now believe and we can do this more often.
