Willowbank Under 18/19’s continued their charge for the title with a game against the league runners up last season St Mary’s on Saturday morning in the reverse of the previous weeks fixture that saw the game end in a 1-1 draw. The Bank knew that they could not take the game for granted like they did last time round when they dropped 2 points. The boys in red started the game brightly as they looked to take an early lead with the front three of Ryan Hanna, Ryan McAreavey & Kevin “Stu” Stewart pressing from the front without the ball ensuring that the tempo of the game was kept high. There was a number of attempts on goal from the lads but nothing too troubling for the St Mary’s keeper. Despite this good start the league leaders were to fall behind much like they did the week previous. A needless free kick was given away in a dangerous area, the delivery from the St Mary’s set piece taker was poor missing all of his teammates and going to the Willowbank keeper who failed to deal with the cross come shot and palmed the ball back into the danger zone where an opposition player had a simple finish to put his side into the lead. This goal didn’t change the way Willowbank went about the game, they kept making the short sharp passes to try and probe a way through the opposition backline with the midfield triangle of Nathan “Sanchez” Garland-O’Neill, Michael “Savo” Savage & Gerard “Scholsey” Doran pulling the strings and ensuring that that they kept possession while also looking for the killer ball. The pressure grew on St Mary’s as Willowbank looked to commit more and more men forward with both full backs Christopher “Mini” Heaney & Conor Loughran having free license to bomb forward to support the attacks leaving Emmet Llewellyn & Eamon McFadden to hold the back. It looked only a matter of time before there was to be an equalizing goal as St Mary’s hoped to weather the storm until half time but the Banks strikeforce proved too strong as a great counter attack found Hanna down the right with time to get his head up and pick out Stu at the back post who took a great first touch, fainted to shoot which sent the defender sliding past then hammered the ball past the keeper to bring his side level and round off a great breakaway goal. This goal showed that the boys from the Falls only needed a minute to score a goal and were to take the lead before the half time whistle when the provider turned to goalscorer as Hanna showed great anticipation as he shot across his marker to get his head onto the quality cross from McAreavey and put the ball beyond the keeper on the last minute of the half as it ended 2-1 on the refs whistle.
The second half started much as the first one finished with Willowbank knocking on the door and constantly testing the opposition backline looking for an opening. The midfield trio had a firm grip on the game with their silky passing but also showed a great work ethic optimized by the perpetual pressure of Savo to hunt the ball down when an attack broke down. Willowbank added another goalscorer to the scoresheet when yet another break down the wing saw Hanna go past 2 defenders before giving himself time and space to get his head up and find skipper Sanchez perfectly timed run in the box and found him with a quality ball which give the skipper a simple finish to apply. The Bank were now looking rampant and with the introduction of fresh legs in the form of Mick McAlourm & Aaron Cush just added a freshness to the attack, they saw numerous chances come and go but couldn’t add to their lead. The last 15 minutes of the game saw Willowbank loose their composure on the ball that they had in abundance earlier in the game as players looked for the killer pass or a 40 yard wonder pass instead of sticking to the short sharp passing that served them well. The game ended 3-1, which extends the boys 14 game unbeaten run in the league and sees Willowbank top of the table by one point with two games in hand on local rivals Newhill with 6 games left to go.
#GOTB
