A stroll in the park for the ladies seconds

North Down seconds hosted Lurgan thirds on Saturday in Comber and following their 9-1 win in Lurgan in November were confident of pulling off another victory.

The first quarter started off well with Jenna Pliauga scoring her first goal from a rebound from Lurgan’s keeper. After the first goal, North Down continued strongly with some great play around the back between Andrea Mockford, Jenna Frazer and Angelique Toombs. The defence had great connecting play up to the midfielders who worked well to release the ball to the forwards with Jasmine Frazer working hard on the left hand side to get balls into the circle. After winning a long corner the ball was fired into the circle and Emily Johnston brought the score up to 2-0.

North Down were then caught off guard when Lurgan fought back to put Helena Press under pressure and forced her to make some fantastic saves. Lurgan eventually got a goal back after they had some fast play down the right hand side and found a free player who made it 2-1. Despite this, North Down were able to control the game and dominated the play with Jessie Patton working hard and passing to Rhiannon Davies who scored a lovely reverse shot which brought the score to 3-1.

The second half then saw Pliauga win a short corner and Johnston secured her second goal from a rebound from the keeper. Shortly afterwards Pliauga scored her second goal of the match with some excellent play in the circle bringing the score to 5-1. With some great passing between the team and Andrea Mockford acting as a pivot in the centre of the pitch the team had some fantastic link play. This led to Sophie Leckie releasing a ball up to Jenna Pliauga who was free at the top of the circle to have a straight strike which secured her hat trick and completed the scoring at 6-1.

Burch Autos Player of the Match was Jenna Pliauga