Anderson’s men through to face Bandon in Round two!
The seconds welcomed Belfast Harlequins 2nd XI to Havelock Park in the first round of the 2011 Irish Junior Cup after a weather enforced break from hockey of almost two months.
The game started brightly for the opening side, although rustiness was evident amongst many players on both teams. Banbridge, playing against a side a league below them, forced a series of short corners in the first ten minutes but were unable to convert.
During the period of sustained early pressure Ben Cosgrove fired a ball in from the right flank which was delicately converted into the bottom left corner of the goal by Simon Magowan. This blatent goal was inexplicably missed by both umpires much to Magowan’s disgust and he was initially yellow carded for dissent. This unfair decision was quickly transformed into a red card after additional arguing between the goal scorer and the umpire. This was a large turning point in the game which forced the home side to play with 10 men for the majority of the game.
From then on Banbridge maintained the majority of the possession and some good play down the right by Brown fashioned a scoring chance for McKnight but he saw his shot fly wide of the left hand post. Practice is 5.30pm on Thursday nights Colin. More hard work by Niall Kelly, Doyle and Woods up front resulted in another series of short corners, all of which came to nothing. The game remained scoreless by half time.
Banbridge knew that their superior fitness and ability would eventually pay off and within 10 minutes of the restart Douglas Anderson finally found his range to dispatch a trademark drag flick from a short corner won by Ciaran Kelly. Bann continued to dominate and after some good play by McKnight, Ciaran Kelly found Ian Livingstone inside the D and he turned his man and found the net with a sound strike.
Bann were briefly reduced to 9 men midway through the half when Ben Cosgrove was sin binned for an innocuous offence, but the home defence stood firm with Anderson and Burns proving to be a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to conquer for the away side.
Harlequins’ defences began to wane towards the end of the game and Bann were in complete control. A short corner was won after good work by Robin Smyrl down the left flank and Anderson saw his second of the afternoon sail into the top left corner of the net to effectively finish the contest.
Bann manouvered themselves convincingly to victory in what was a difficult encounter and will be hoping for a much improved performance this Saturday against Bandon 2nds in the next round of the Junior Cup.