Last minute defeat for ladies seconds
On Friday night the Comber girls made the short trip over to CIYMS in Belfast to play their league fixture against Grosvenor 2nds. One minutes silence before the match was observed in the memory of Lesley Scates, a coach and a former player at North Down.
North Down started the stronger of the two teams and began to string great passes up the pitch, much of this coming from Natasha Adamson in her role as centre back. Grosvenor began a counter attack which resulted in the award of a number of short corners. North Down’s first runner Shannen White ensured that there were no direct strikes on goal but eventually after the fifth corner North Down conceded a penalty flick when Rebecca Walker tried to save off the line and unfortunately her foot got a touch. The pressure was then on keeper Linda Marshall. The striker placed the ball top left and, although Linda got her stick to it, it wasn’t enough to deny them the 1-0 lead. This concentrated North Down’s efforts as the better playing team on the night and their persistency paid off when Sasha Bell, in her debut match for the seconds, played a brilliant ball into the circle from a free. With the help of Shannen White, Jenna Hoey managed to get in front of her marker and slot the ball perfectly into the back of the net sending the teams into the half time break at 1- 1.
The second half followed the pattern of the first with North Down dominant. On the right Hannah McKee and Aisling Reid both had fantastic games
and created problems all evening for the Grosvenor defence but the problem as ever was getting that final touch for goal. In the final minute Grosvenor shocked the visitors. A last ditch attack found their striker who got a great ball in the circle and was able to pass across the face of the goal where her colleague slotted home a last second goal to ensure that for that weekend they would stay top of the league.
There was great play and fight all through the game from the Comber girls however failure to take goal opportunities cost them the match.