Today we travelled the short Distance to Billy Neills to play Dixon Colts in the Quarter Finals of S.B.Y.F.L. Cup with a full squad as our Captain Jack Hare was back after 4 weeks out through injury.
We started the match slowly, which is unusual for us but we were in total control of the match. We did find it hard to breakdown a resilient Dixon five man defence and they did defend well and when we did get through their keeper was in great form by far their best man on the pitch.
Our defence was back to our solid four with Brandon McFerran, Bradley McCourt, (Captain) Jack Hare & Andrew Graham who were not going to let much past them.
Our midfield was running the game with Ryan Hannah (having the game of his life) on the right wing, Noah Crenshaw inside him working well together, Stuart Graham went to central midfield (an unusual place for him) and worked hard closing the Dixon Colts midfield down, Reece Atkinson was left centre of midfield and worked his socks of and tied up very well with Matthew Guest on the left wing who for 70 mins tortured the Dixon colts right back.
Rhys Mackie was up front niggling at the Dixon colts defence at every opportunity.
After constant pressure on the Dixon defence we final got our goal in the 24th minute when Stuart Graham found Matthew Guest with a pass out on the left Matthew took it passed the defender and drill a shot from just inside the box passed the keeper, 1 : 0 Ards and although we kept creating chances that’s how it stayed till half time.
HALF TIME: 0 . 1
We started the second half much quicker and it was obvious Ards wanted to rap the game up. Five minutes in we made our first substitute with Noah Crenshaw making way for leading goalscorer Jack Patterson and Jack wasted know time getting into the action as he hit a shot on the volley that crashed of the crossbar, it was going to be a long second half for Dixon Colts as the boys were now going at them in top gear. Number two came in the 44th minute when Ryan Hannah who had worked hard all match went down the right wing sent over a low cross which Stuart Graham got on the end off as his shot came off the keeper Matthew Guest was there to grab his second goal of the match and put us 2 : 0 up. Marcus Baron came on for Andrew Graham who had another solid performance at left back, Bradley Clarke came on for Rhys Mackie who was carrying an ankle knock & Stuart Hannah came on for his brother Ryan who had given his all and had earned a breather.
FULL TIME: 0 . 2
Managers Comments:
It was good to have our Captain Jack Hare back from injury and see him come through a full 70 mins. The full team had a good game and got back to playing the nice football we know they can play and get through to the semi finals with a nice tie with League Champions Rosario the reward. Well done boys now let’s keep this standard up and improve it as well.
Parents Comments:
Sandra Graham
Well done lads, a great win .a delight to watch. Back to our winning ways. Great interaction between u all and no bickering way forward and well done to all the supporters too plenty of encouragement but no shouting. Come on the semis
