Thirds wilt under South Antrim pressure
North Down men’s third XI faced a youthful South Antrim thirds at Comber on Saturday. As has been the case over the last number of weeks, changes in personnel created another new look for the thirds and to accommodate preferred positions they started with a four man midfield and a three quarter press.
Content with letting the backline of South Antrim have the ball, the first 10 minutes was fairly controlled by North Down, limiting the chances at the other end. It was in fact North Down who went one goal up when an excellent overlapping run to the baseline from Sam Brown, was excellently pulled back for Sam Pyper to strike first time into the corner. South Antrim then got a grip of the game and, after an almost immediate short corner execution to equalise, they started to overload and pass around the four man midfield. A second goal soon followed following a slick move and it soon became clear that the new home team formation wasn’t working as planned, and that giving South Antrim time on the ball was to the detriment of the home side. After the first quarter, the Comber men moved to their more traditional three man up top to widen the pitch, give the visitors’ defenders more to think about, and engage a full press. A well worked move allowed Jonny Green to waltz into the area and, after evading a stick tackle, the ball touched his foot and at first what looked like a great advantage played by the away umpire was not to be and the whistle subsequently blew just as Green finished past the keeper, for a South Antrim free out.
Into the second half, any discussions at half time went out the window and weak sloppy passing led to a counter attack and a goal, followed by a further two in 5 minutes to put the visitors 5-1 up and out of sight. North Down created a number of chances on the wings however final passes when it mattered went astray and they couldn’t get back into the game. South Antrim, all under the age of 25, were sharp and ultimately much, much fitter. In the last quarter they added a sixth just before a deflected ball struck Ali Carter just above the eye which needed lengthy treatment and the game was blown up early.
Lessons to be learnt for this forever evolving 3s team.
Burch Autos Man of the Match: Ben Long
