Mens thirds lose out to league leaders

North Down thirds made the short journey to Queen’s last Saturday to face the undefeated league leaders knowing they faced a tough challenge.

The leaders, who featured a couple of ex-North Down players and plenty of fast skilled players started quickly and carved a couple of early opportunities. They failed to convert these and after 15 minutes it looked like the visitors had weathered the storm and were gaining a foothold, making progress into opposition territory.  However they were caught with a couple sucker punches and were two down, one clever deflection and one scrappy scramble. Before half time though, the thirds got back into it, Andrew Boyd made a great interception and run into the circle. He played in Mark Shannon who beat one defender and was fouled by the keeper, the loose ball ran to Andy Boyd whose shot stuck the defender on the line. The resulting flick was scored by Mark Shannon and the visitors were back in it.  Indeed it was almost level as the keeper made a good save from Sam Pyper late in the half after good work from Shannon and Scotty Moore up front.

 The second half saw the North Down team struggle to find any form at all.  The forwards never really getting the supply to create the chances needed to get back on level terms. The league leaders added a third halfway through the half and then a combination of tired North Down legs, the visitors full 16 man squad and the search for a second North Down goal led to more spaces appearing and Queen’s deservedly increased their lead with two more late on.

 All in all it was a frustrating day for the thirds who shouldn’t let this bad result blunt their confidence after the recent strong run of victories.