SBYL under 12 first division
Sat 13th April 2013 – Hydebank 9.00 ko - Opposition – Immaculata
For Holywood to have any remote chance of winning this league we had to beat runaway leaders Immaculata. After taking a 6-0 drubbing on our previous encounter with them it would take an extraordinary performance to turn that around. I warned the boys that Immaculata seem to blow teams away in the first 10 mins and they should have known that anyway after the previous game. So it was good that we didn’t capitulate quite as early as last time. However after 10 mins a cross came from the left and a back-post side-foot volley gave them the lead. It wasn’t long before they added two more to make it 3-0. Defensively we just could not cope with their pace, power and trickery. We pulled a goal back just before half-time when their keeper spilled a free kick from Niall. That made it 3-1 and I’m thinking lets just get to half-time and re-group and try to reduce their lead further in the second half. I shouted instructions to all the team to keep it tight for 2 mins to the break. Unfortunately a minute later their pacy number 9 picked the ball up just inside our half and outpaced the chasing Adam Collins before poking a low shot past the helpless Josh in goal. A half-time score line of 3-1 would have given us hope but 4-1 was a big ask to come back from.
Half-time : Holywood 1 , Immaculata 4.
Despite making a flurry of changes at various stages in the second half to try and restore some respectability, we fell further behind when a speculative shot on the edge of the box completely caught Josh off guard. Now it was 5-1. The sixth was a carbon copy of the fourth when again, their number 9 outmuscled and outpaced Adam to finish in similar fashion. We did get a few corners in the second half to try and pull a goal or two back but Immaculata never give us a sniff. Immaculata are worthy champions no doubt about it when they can blow away their title rivals like this. For us it’s a fight with Carryduff and Donegal Celtic for second place. We would need to defend a lot better than this to have any chance. Plenty of work for us all to do on the training ground from now till the end of the season. Have to keep the chins up and remain positive.
Final score : Holywood 1 , Immaculata 6.
Goal scorer – Niall(28 mins).
MOTM - Tongai. If everybody in the team had his tenacity,aggression & never-say-die attitude we’d be in a better place. An example to the whole squad.
Squad – Josh Johnston, Josh Burford, Tom Mc Illhatton, Paddy Crookshanks, George Moore, Cameron Alexander, Ben Murray, Dozie Ajeh, Niall Grimley, Thomas Wilson, Jamie Owens, Euan Morrow, Tom Wilson, Tongai Watson, Jack McNeill, Adam Collins.
