U16 Northern Ireland Plate vs Integrated College Glengormley
The u16s progressed to the Quarter Finals of the Northern Ireland plate on Wednesday afternoon after a convincing 4-2 win over Integrated College Glengormley.
Laurelhill took command of the game from the first whistle, with Spencer, Harry and Max exchanging some excellent one-two touch football to win Laurelhill a corner. Billy N’s delivery was flicked on at the near post and smashed home on the volley by centre back Reuben, in the words of the boys “a proper Sportszone lunch time goal”. Laurelhill quickly made it 2-0 on the 8 minute, fantastic determination from Jay B to win the ball in midfield, drive past two players and slip Jay I down the left wing. Jay I played a fantastic ball across goal to Max who took one touch to calmly and confidently place the ball in the bottom corner.
Just before the end of the half Glengormley pulled one back with a terrific strike from the edge of the box. It was only their second shot of the game and their first on target, which highlights the superb defending from Isaac, Reuben, Noah and Spencer.
With Glengormley encouraged by their goal, they raised their game and started to press Laurelhill and put pressure on the players every time they touched the ball. Laurelhill weathered this 10 minute period of constant pressure through excellent desire to break up Glengormley’s attack and not let them get into any sort of rhythm. Credit must go to the midfield trio of Billy N, Billy B and Jay B who covered nearly every blade of grass.
Laurelhill took a 3-1 lead after excellent pressure of our own, led to Jay B finding himself 1-on-1 with the goalkeeper. To some they might have thought the angle was slightly against Jay B, but to no surprise Jay hammered the ball confidently across the keeper and into the bottom corner.
With three minutes left Glengormley found the back of the net with an acrobatic overhead kick which took everyone by surprise, a fantastic finish set the game up for a tense and nervy finish. However the U16s have been in this position before and that experience was telling during the final minutes of the game. While Glengormley were motivated and fired up after their goal, our boys kept their heads and displayed fantastic attitude to not get drawn into any silly behaviour. With Glengormley pushing for an equaliser, the Laurelhill back line stood firmed and dealt with any delivery into the box. The final moment of the game was telling of the attitude of the boys, a long clearance was chased down by James H, instead of letting the full back have time on the ball, James H put him under pressure and made him have to play the ball, instead James H dispossessed him and with the keeper up for the corner, James had an empty net to seal the win. Unfortunately for James, the defender fouled James inside the box just as he was about to shoot. Up stepped Max who smashed the penalty home for Laurelhill’s fourth and Max’s second of the game.
Man of the Match was again a tough decision, but it was decided by staff and opposition staff that it should be awarded to Jay B who’s driving runs and ability to recover the ball for Laurelhill was excellent throughout the game.
Well done lads on a great win.
Final score:
Laurelhill 4-2 Integrated College Glengormley
Goal Scorers: Max x2, Jay B and Reuben
MOTM: Jay B
Mr Smyth
