East Down U-16 Football League Section B

Ballykinlar 1-09 Loughinisland 5-09

Section favourites Loughinisland were given a couple of scares along the way in this fast paced and exciting League game at Ballykinlar last week.

The match itself was set alight twenty seconds in when the robust Anthony Robb bundled the ball past Loughinisland keeper Kieran Gordon. The away side soon equalised though with full forward Luke Turley finding the net.

Yet the Island found it difficult to take control of the game and Ballykinlar went on to score four points in succession. Captain Declan Kavanagh got three of these with the marauding Barry Melville adding the other. This give the Kinlar a four point lead.

However, Loughinisland hit back with a vengeance, scoring 2-06 to bring the game to half time. The pick of these scores was a tremendous individual effort from midfielder Chris McNamara.

The opening exchanges in the second half were pretty even with Conor Killen first to break the deadlock for the away side. Ballykinlar fought back and scored twice through Kavanagh. Then in the space of a minute Loughinisland found the Kinlar net twice through Luke Turley and Conor Killen. This effectively ended Ballykinlar's chance of getting back in to the game.

Though in all fairness the homeside kept plugging away to reduce the deficit to eleven points with strikes from Barry Melville and sub Kieran Carville.

As the final whistle approached Killen had himself another score just before Kavanagh hit the Kinlar's last of the night. The last action saw star Loughinisland forward Conor McKinney end proceedings with a fine effort.

In what was a fantastic game of football the greater experience in the Loughinisland team saw them through. Their keeper Gordon marshalled the defence well which had sound displays from Ciaran O'Neill and Ryan Bell. Conor Killen and Chris McNamara looked an excellent midifield partnership and provided the ammunition for the dangerous Turley and McKinney in the forwards.

Ballykinlar lost their way for awhile in the second half but their first half performance was a lot more encouraging. Blaine Warnock pulled off three fanatastic point blank saves and was well protected throughout by Eamon King, Anthony Mageean and Raymond Melville in the full back line. Barry Melville was the pick of the half back line and got forward often to support the impressive midfield duo of Kavanagh and Robb. In the attack Patrick Curry asked a lot of questions of the Island full back line and was well supported by Martin Willoughby and sub Kieran Carville.

 

Ballykinlar: B.Warnock, E.King, A.Mageean, R.Melville, R.Cardwell, B.Melville (0-02), C.McKee, D.Kavanagh (0-06), A.Robb (1-00), S.O'Rourke,  M.Willoughby, R.Fitzsimons, L.Smith, S.Cunningham, P.Curry. Subs: L.Grant, M.Mageean, K.Carville (0-01), C.Carville, D.Smith.