In the proverbial game of two halves Carryduff u16s eventually recorded a comfortable win over Loughinisland to progress to the Championship semi-final.

From the throw in Loughinisland won possession and moved forward purposefully only to kick wide. This set the tempo for the first half with Loughinisland taking the game to Carryduff but failing to turn possession into scores. By the 13th minute Loughinisland had recorded 7 wides to 3 for Carryduff with only Andy Moorhead(9) from 30m troubling the scorekeeper.

Carryduff's performance was characterised by misplaced passes, wrong options and a lack of determination to win broken possession. Only the full back line escaped the malaise and their performance kept Carryduff in the game.

Loughinisland moved ahead with points (14&15) from play. At this stage little was going right for Carryduff but on 17 Chris McConville pointed after over-elaboration seemed to have lost the opportunity. Two minutes later Carryduff went ahead, direct delivery into the square saw a defender spill the ball and Kevin Briggs nipped in to goal. Undaunted Loughinisland continued to press and pointed (20), however two further wides were a poor return for their efforts. A neat Slevin point (27) stretched the lead but pointed Frees (29&30) reduced the deficit to the minimum. Loughinisland should have taken the lead on half time when O'Reilly spilled the ball and the combined efforts of Murphy, Neeson and Craig were needed to prevent a goal.

Half Time: Loughinisland 0-5 Carryduff 1-3.

The focus at half time was on Carryduff raising the tempo and utilising a more direct style of play. The response from the players was to considerably up their performance. McCreesh drove a long range free wide but possession was secured from the kick out and Moorhead lofted over a superb point from wide on the right. Within a minute McMahon won a long ball in great space and crashed a shot against the post. Carryduff were now moving much more purposefully with McCreesh, Carey and Briggs garnering possession around midfield as Loughinisland struggled to get beyond the Carryduff half back line.

Richard Carey(4) pointed but four wides were a concern. On 8 minutes Briggs broke through and shot against the crossbar, Slevin gathered the rebound and despite the attentions of three defenders forced the ball over the line. Bouyed by this Carryduff racked up points from Quinn, Carey and McConville(2) between the 10th and 14th minutes to open up a ten point gap. As Carryduff relaxed Loughinisland recorded their first score of the second half(22) and a minute later only a brilliant diving save by O'Reilly kept the Carryduff goal intact.

The last 5 minutes saw carryduff go on a scoring spree McMahon drilled over an excellent point from a tight angle (25) and McCrory won possession to score of his left foot(26). Kevin Briggs strode through on the right to hammer an unstoppable shot to the net (27) and aminute later McConville struck confidently of his left foot to the roof of the net, The final action saw McMahon win possession some 35m out and launch a trademark shot for a point which dropped to the net over the despairing hands of the keeper to give Carryduff a rather flattering margin of victory

Final score Loughinisland 0-6 Carryduff 5-11

C.O'Reilly
P.Craig M.Murphy M.Neeson
C.Brennan R. McKay R. Forrest
R.Carey (0-2) S.McCreesh
K.Briggs (2-0) A.Moorhead (0-2) C.McConville(1-3)
C.Slevin (1-1) T.McMahon (1-1) B.Quinn(0-1)
C.McCrory (0-1) K.McGoran, M.Murray, M.Conway A.Stronge

Match Report: Damien Quinn - Taken from Carryduff website