Mens thirds cruise to Portrush win
North Down thirds hosted Portrush seconds in the first round of the Junior Shield on Saturday. Fresh off the back of a disappointing defeat to Annadale thirds in the league, the Comber men were eager to get back to winning ways.
A strong home side dominated the game from the off and grew in confidence as each quarter was played eventually running out deserved 7 – 1 winners. Although they probably still didn’t get into top gear, however what was displayed was a great team ethic, superb work rate for each other and excellent decision making. As the game went on passes got sharper and some intricate play and over lapping runs by Andy McKee and James Shields caused havoc for the experienced Portrush side.
The deadlock was soon broken in the first quarter when McKee gave the goalkeeper no chance with a bulletlike shot into the top corner. North Down soon followed up with a neat short corner variation and Sam Brown flicked home to make it 2-0. At the back the partnership of Colin Mockford and Jonny Campbell continues to impress and Portrush provided little threat up top.
Into the second quarter and North Down continued to threaten. Sam Pyper found McKee and James Shields over lapping the last defender and the two passed round the keeper to provide the youngster with his first senior goal for the club.
The second half was more of the same albeit Portrush managed a goal from some scrappy defending to pull it back to 3-1. With the visitors starting to tire, the thirds moved up a gear again. An old school short corner variation taken from the right hand side, had Portrush (and a few North Down) players confused. Stephen Dalzell slipped square to Pyper whose effort was saved but Brown was there to finish well on the rebound for his second of the day. Soon after, Andy Walls made a great run to the baseline and pulled a perfect ball back to Peter Shields who made no mistake with a strong slap making it 5-1. Chances continued and on another day the home team could have hit double figures. A great ball from Campbell found Pyper on the right hand side and he slipped it square past the last defender for Shields senior to finish coolly from close range.
The scoring wasn’t finished there as the work rate and hunger to play to the final whistle was impressive. Walls found Pyper dropping deep on the right wing and the striker was spoilt for options with Scott Graham and Brown beating their men for pace, but to everyone’s surprise it was veteran defender Paul Beaney who made the best run to the near post. Beaney collected the pass and although his effort was saved he made no mistake with the rebound to make it 7-1 thus registering his first club goal since November 2013, his impressive fourth in a 29 year playing career.
Burch Autos Man of the Match was Andy McKee.