Busy weekend for Under 15 Girls Development squad

KILKEEL
On Friday night they made the trip to play Kilkeel. It was a well contested match with play end to end for both teams North Down had their chances but couldn’t convert and Kilkeel came very close to breaking the deadlock with a shot which rebounded off the post. The score remained scoreless at the final whistle.

Huge thanks to parents who made the journey for their support and to Darren Toombs who kindly umpired. Special thanks to all the girls for their dedication in making the journey for an 8pm start in Kilkeel even although they had early starts at school hockey the next morning.

MOSSLEY
On Sunday  they had their second run out of the season against Mossley at Regent House. We knew this was going to be a toughie – never mind with the rain falling.

We started strongly but then Mossley began to settle and put our defence under pressure. Our back four of Eilidh, Tess, Emma and Shannon all worked back to clear threatening play. We conceded a couple of corners but Amy in goals made excellent clearances. Our midfield tried to feed our forwards but Mossley were quick to intercept and get first to the ball. Before the end of the first quarter Mossley’s pressure paid off and they scored from a goal mouth scuffle.

Onto the second period and it was the home team who found the net when Abbie McCready slotted the ball into the net.  All to play for now and both teams pushed for a winner. Rhiannon found space up front and sent in some lovely crosses but unfortunately we just couldn’t connect in the circle. Sophie tried to push forward but was unlucky. As the minutes ebbed away North Down soaked up a lot of pressure but it just wasn’t meant to be as the visitors were awarded a penalty corner and scored from a rocket shot that whizzed past the defenders and goalie into the net.

Right on full time time we were awarded a penalty corner but couldn’t convert so the final score was 2-1 to Mossley and perhaps on balance a draw would have been a fair result!

Huge thanks to parents for their support, to Keri Portinga for umpiring and special mention to Leah Drysdale who enjoyed her first run out of the season after being out injured since last summer – welcome back!