{"id":1275,"date":"2013-12-03T16:04:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T16:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northdownhc.co.uk\/?p=1275"},"modified":"2013-12-03T16:04:23","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T16:04:23","slug":"fifths-and-psni-stalemate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/03\/fifths-and-psni-stalemate\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifths and PSNI stalemate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>North Down fifths took on PSNI 2nds at Nendrum College last Saturday in a Junior League Five fixture.\u00a0 The police team have been having a bit of an unsettled season so far with fixtures being disrupted due to the various protests in the Province.<\/p>\n

The game started lively enough and a tough midfield battle ensued. There was relatively little to separate the sides for the first 15 minutes or so with neither side making any headway although on balance PSNI had the better of the chances. Eventually the game got its first goal. PSNI playing the ball from their own 16 hit out straight down the left wing, the ball found an unmarked player just outside the circle who dropped a delightfully weighted ball past the on looking North Down defenders for an onrushing attacker to blast home. This awoke North Down who applied some pressure themselves winning several short corners. Eventually\u00a0North down got themselves back on level terms when, after a goal mouth scramble, Adam Milligan popped up to finish from close range.<\/p>\n

North Down felt they should have added to their tally a few minutes later when a midfield passing combination paid off and Milligan found himself with the ball at the top of the circle.\u00a0 He spun and dragged the ball goal ward with venom and it rattled the backboard to his team mates\u2019 delight. However\u00a0he was\u00a0adjudged to have been outside the circle by the umpire and curiously the midfield maestro didn’t appeal!! So, all square at the break.<\/p>\n

A passionate half time team talk did little to rally the troops for as soon as the second half was underway North Down were immediately on the back foot. North Down couldn’t seem to get a handle on the game\u00a0and their frustrations began to show.\u00a0 With 40 minutes gone North Down were\u00a01-2 down. A ball passed\u00a0straight through the middle eluded the defence and a PSNI attacker nipped in to do the damage from close range.\u00a0North Down again began their\u00a0struggle to wrestle the game\u00a0into their grasp and discovered a new found desire\u00a0and more importantly the ability to pass the ball.\u00a0 Good work from John Clarke in and around the 25\u00a0lead to a\u00a0harmless ball trickling into the circle and with the defence hesitant, Bryn Walker nipped in and tapped it past the keeper to level the game again.\u00a0 Walker\u2019s subsequent celebration could have attributed to fatigue\u00a0later in the game as he sprinted back to the half way line kissing his badge and thumping his chest.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t long before North Down gained the lead with passing now the order of the day.\u00a0 Clarke played the ball into the circle for Peter Bond to tip it\u00a0past the onrushing keeper giving David Renfrew an easy tap in to put the home side ahead for the first time at\u00a03-2. \u00a0PSNI then threw everything they had at their hosts who remained resolute until the final few minutes when the pressure finally told.\u00a0 The\u00a0PSNI striker broke in the circle and rounded keeper Sam Martin who hauled him down for the inevitable penalty flick.\u00a0 This was converted to make the final score 3-3 in what was a\u00a0hard fought game and a fair result.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Man of the Match: Bryn Walker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Down fifths took on PSNI 2nds at Nendrum College last Saturday in a Junior League Five fixture.\u00a0 The police team have been having a bit of an unsettled season so far with fixtures being disrupted due to the various protests in the Province. The game started lively enough and a tough midfield battle ensued….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-match-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}