{"id":9573,"date":"2018-11-13T15:01:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T15:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northdownhc.co.uk\/?p=9573"},"modified":"2018-11-13T15:01:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T15:01:53","slug":"kirk-cup-defeat-in-cookstown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/13\/kirk-cup-defeat-in-cookstown\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Cup defeat in Cookstown"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Down completed their Kirk Cup programme on Monday evening with an away trip to Cookstown against the IHL side. In an entertaining game for the enthusiastic crowd the home side came out victorious by the margin of 4-2.<\/p>\n

North Down without three regulars played some of their best hockey of the season.\u00a0 They showed no fear of their opponents and attacked at every opportunity causing many anxious moments in the Cookstown defence.\u00a0 North Down got the perfect start scoring after 3 minutes with what was probably the best goal of the game.\u00a0 A quick slick passing movement involving five players cut the Cookstown defence open and Josh Gilmore slotted home.\u00a0 Cookstown leveled the scores after 13 minutes from a well rehearsed short corner routine.\u00a0 Rodgers made some fine clearances as the Cookstown forwards homed in on goal. The defence brilliantly marshaled by Ritchie and Linter used every opportunity to set up attacks.\u00a0 Cookstown took the lead midway through the half when a midfielder ran on to a loose ball and slotted past Rodgers.\u00a0 To their credit North Down kept plugging away and were awarded a number of corners.\u00a0 McKeown\u2019s effort from the first was blocked but the second flashed into the net. With a minute to go to half time North Down gave the ball away in midfield and with turnover ball Cookstown won a penalty corner from which they took the lead to make it 3-2 at half time.<\/p>\n

The second half followed a similar pattern with both sides playing fast open hockey.\u00a0 Cookstown extended their lead 10 minutes into the half.\u00a0 North Down defence got drawn out of position and the winger had a simple task to tap home at the far post.\u00a0 Linter with his up and overs was causing the Cookstown defence problems and both McKeown and Gilmore\u00a0 almost created chances.\u00a0 Rodgers at the other end had to be on his toes to make a number of important clearances.\u00a0 Both sides fought hard to the end but no further goals were scored.<\/p>\n

We wish Cookstown good luck when they take on Annadale in the semi-final on Sunday. It\u2019s back to the Premier League on Saturday when North Down entertain Harlequins at Comber Leisure Centre at 2.30 pm.<\/p>\n

PMB Player of the Match: Darren Rodgers<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Down completed their Kirk Cup programme on Monday evening with an away trip to Cookstown against the IHL side. In an entertaining game for the enthusiastic crowd the home side came out victorious by the margin of 4-2. North Down without three regulars played some of their best hockey of the season.\u00a0 They showed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9577,"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":[6,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-match-reports","category-mens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9573","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=9573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9578,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9573\/revisions\/9578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northdownhc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}