Match Report

Match : 1st XI v Instonians 2nds
Date : 2002-10-26
Venue : H
Score : 0-6
Scorers :

By Alan Burgess

Saturday saw East Antrim 1st XI take on the might of Instonians 2nds in the first round of the Irish Junior Cup. The Irish Junior Cup is one of Inst 2nds targets this year and for this reason we were expecting a tough game and a tough game we got.

The game started well for East, we had more of the ball and created a few chances in and around the Inst circle, we didn't allow Inst time to settle on the ball and every player was tightly marked. However once Inst scored their first goal it seemed to settle them and they began to move the ball a lot quicker and started to find space to move into. It was backs to the wall for East for most of the first half as very little was created in Inst's half of the field. Inst scored two more goals before the half time whistle making it 3-0 at the break.

The second half continued as the first half had finished, East doing the defending. The game started to open up a bit more in the second half due to us tiring, having chased and hustled all afternoon. Inst scored another 3 goals in the second half to make the final score 6-0.

It was one of those days when we simply came up against a better side, a team who always managed to find that yard of space that we didn't cover. The lads worked well and never gave up even when the score was 5-0 and 6-0, this in itself is an improvment, if the heads had dropped we would have been beaten by a bigger scoreline.

One negative point though was Neal Hermon recieving his second yellow card in 5 competitive matches, to say I am not happy about this is an understatement, Neal will have to learn to keep his mouth shut as he is no use to anyone standing on the sideline while we are reduced to ten men.

J.Hamill
A.Murphy
N.Hermon
G.Reid
P.Grant
A.Burgess
D.Caldwell
B.Watters
J.Greer
L.Currie
S.Swann
P.Reid
P.Irwin