North Down thirds hosted Portadown seconds at Comber last Saturday and from the off it was all North Down moving the ball quickly and keeping possession.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before the deadlock was broken.\u00a0Tom Donnan\u00a0collected the ball inside his own half and side stepping player after player found himself approaching the circle and smashing it past\u00a0the keeper. Five minutes later a\u00a0Stephen Magee aerial ball put\u00a0Greg Bell through only for him to be wiped out by the keeper. Sam Pyper\u00a0made it 2-0 from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n
Into the second quarter and the home defence stood strong with young\u00a0Rhys Barratt not giving his Portadown counterpart a sniff. He was cool calm and collected and didn\u2019t put a foot wrong. Back at the other end Andy Walls found Pyper in the circle who squared in front of goal for\u00a0Andrew Welsh\u00a0to finish well. Portadown got back into it with a well worked short corner and it was 3-1 at the break.<\/p>\n
The thirds, in a good run of form in a tough league, came out eager to extend their lead and soon did just that with a great run and reverse finish from\u00a0Daniel McNulty. The visitors got back into it again to make it 4-2 with the thirds having their usual 10 minute spell of complacency. They soon upped their game in the final quarter and got back to dominating possession. As Portadown pushed high up the pitch, North Down created more chances on the counter.\u00a0 When Pyper found Magee in front of goal, the veteran smashed a shot in.\u00a0 The keeper made a fine save but it wasn\u2019t enough and the ball fell to Welsh who doubled his tally and rounded off a great 5-2 victory.<\/p>\n
Burch Autos Man of the Match was Rhys Barrett<\/p>\n
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