Comfortable Premier win for men’s first eleven over Service
North Down entertained Civil Service at Comber Leisure Centre last Friday evening in a Premier League game without the unavailable Jonny Linter, Scott Moore, Scott Irwin and the injured duo of Harry Templeton and Andrew Welsh. However, on the positive side, they welcomed back Ross Linter and skipper Phil Wilson from injury.
Service started strongly and put the North Down defence under early pressure winning an early corner which was well saved by Darren Rodgers. At the other end Josh Gilmore saw his reverse shot go wide before Wilson made a strong run but no one was able to get on the end of his cross. Service won three quick corners but these were cleared thanks to keeper Rodgers and a brilliant clearance by Jordan Linter who somehow plucked the ball out of the sky and deflected it around the post.
Service were playing half court allowing North Down to dominate possession and keep constant pressure on their defence. A good movement involving Wilson, McKeown and Blair ended with a corner being awarded but this was easily cleared. The ball was played into the circle and the tireless Tweedie put the home side in front with a shot from the edge of the circle for his first goal for the club. At the other end Service saw a shot go over the bar before Andy Boyd, who was having a fine game, found acres of space on the right but no one got a touch on his cross. Almost immediately Boyd again found space and this time Gareth Bailie got the touch to put the home side two up at half time.
Almost straight from the restart a move involving Gilmore, McKeown and Dalzell split the Service defence and Gilmore scored the third from close range to make it comfortable for the Comber boys who were clearly on top at this stage. They then won a number of corners and from one of these McKeown flicked narrowly past. The third quarter ended with a number of missed opportunities for North Down to increase their telling lead.
In the final quarter Service put on a higher press and North Down had to defend to retain their three goal advantage as the visitors won three corners which were easily cleared. This was an excellent result for North Down and hopefully when all players become available they can challenge further up the Premier League table.
Burch Autos Man of the Match was Jordan Linter.
Another MOM performance from Jordi