Willowbank under 19’s had a local derby to look forward to this week as they played Newhill on Saturday morning at Whiterock in the South Belfast Premier. There was a sense of tension in the air as the match kicked off with more than just your usual 3 points up for grabs, both sides knew that bragging rights and pride were also at stake. The match started at a frantic pace as both teams battled to gain the upper hand early on in the game with only spells of settled football breaking out on the tight Whiterock pitch with neither team looking likely to break the deadlock. Eventually the match found a pattern of play as Willowbank looked dangerous going forward with the pace of Kevin Stewart the height and quick footwork of Sean Elliott & the relentless work ethic of Christopher ”Mini” Heaney as the Bank looked to press from the front. Willowbank where to make use of Stu’s pace when from a Newhill corner which was defended well as Emmett Llewellyn climbed above the crowd to clear his lines and find Stu on the left who then took on and beat his marker before driving down the line and cutting inside only to be brought down in the box to earn his side a penalty. Caption, and former Newill player, Nathan “Sanchez” Garland-O’Neill took responsibility and stepped up to take the spot kick, despite his penalty miss in the week previous against Aquinas, and he hammered the ball past the keeper to emphatically to disperse any doubts about his penalty taking to put his side into the lead. Willowbank were getting a lot of joy from the left wing as Stu was just too quick and sharp for the Newhill defenders to handle and created numerous opportunities to double their lead but could not convert until the half hour mark when Mini broke down the right before cutting inside and playing a perfectly weighted threw pass which Savo intelligently dummied to let the ball run for Stu whose well timed run resulted in him being 1v1 with the Newhill keeper as he held his nerve and slotted the ball into the corner of the net to double his sides lead and to add yet another to his personal tally which now stands at 8 in 6 games the half ended at 2-0 to the Bank.
The Second half kicked off with Newhill looking to get back into the game and Willowbank looking for that third goal to kill off any hope of a comeback with both realizing the importance of the next goal. Willowbank were building pressure on the Newhill defense and comfortably dealing with any attacks Newhill did launch with Eamon McFadden and Emmett Llewellyn providing a strong core of the defense. The third goal in the game went the Bank’s way as well when Newhill failed to deal with a corner and the ball fell to Brian Kennedy in the box who just prodded the ball into the net to further dishearten their opponents. The game went into a bit of a lull a Newhill lost a bit of their fight and Willowbank looking a bit complacent but even in this period Willowbank managed to score when Sean Elliott took the ball with a fantastic first touch, turned his man before having a shot on goal which the keeper probably should have saved but Sean won’t be complaining as he keeps up his fantastic record of a goal a game! Newhill then started to fight again for their pride and got the rewards for their determination when the pulled one back not long after Willowbank had scored their 4th . Newhill then started to press a lot more as Willowbank dropped deeper and deeper in the last 5 minutes of the game, Willowbank once again showed how dangerous they are on the break as from another Newhill corner that was cleared Brian picked up the pieces and took the game to his opponents beating one player before leaving the rest in his wake striding away from everyone before hammering the ball into the top corner to ensure the Bank had the last word on the game as it ended 5-1 and extends thier 100% winning start to the seasion to 6 games on the trot. Man of the Match Kevin “Stu” Stewart
