Ladies thirds lose narrowly to Garvey

The ladies thirds played Lisnagarvey fourths at Ards Leisure Centre looking for some much needed points. After an emotional one-minute silence to remember Lesley Scates the game got underway.

North Down started as the stronger team with lots of attacking play linking from front to back.  Their first real chance came when Rebecca Brown found Judith Orr unmarked at the top of the circle but the shot went just wide of the right post. With North down controlling the game, more players were committing to the attack in search of the first goal. This ultimately led to Garvey counter-attacking through an interception and quick ball to find one of their players unmarked in the circle who placed the ball past the on-coming Linda Marshall. Garvey used their lead to their advantage and before long it was doubled.  Charlotte McKee was then unlucky not to score after a superb run, seeing her shot go just wide of the left post.

North Down went into the break with their heads downs, knowing that if they had taken their chances the score line would be much different. In the second half North Down regained their composure and were linking good passes together between Laura Campbell and Sacha Bell. The forward line of Aimee Orr, Amy Jones, Sheona Whiteside and Beth Murray worked tirelessly in search of a goal. Any counter attacks were dealt with well by Karen Moore, Rebecca Nield and Kathryn Rogers. North Down’s efforts were finally rewarded when Rebecca Brown found herself in space and fired the ball into the bottom corner. The thirds were unlucky not to level the scores when Beth Murray picked the ball up in the circle but couldn’t put it beyond the advancing keeper leaving the game to finish 2-1 in favour of the visitors.