The firsts gained another three points against Tollymore despite the narrow pitch which is marked by the town themselves according to some people (who should know better)!!
The seconds travelled to Valley on Saturday and got a very creditable draw. The seconds could only manage to bring a squad of 12 players to this tough away tie but they showed great spirit and determination and almost came away with three points.
The town started slowly allowing the home team to use the big pitch effectively, passing and moving off the ball, causing the town defence to be stretched to the limit, but to their credit they held strong and weathered the early pressure. On 20 minutes the town started to put some passes together and exploited the Valley weakness in defence, they forced a corner and from the resulting kick Crilly missed narrowly at the near post, shortly after that Beckett went through on goal but the valley keeper saved an almost certain goal.
After 30 minutes the Valley broke down their left and from the resulting cross the ball lopped over the town keeper and nestled in the corner of the net, another freak goal for a second week in a row.
In the second half the town came out of the blocks quickest, their crosses where causing the Valley all sorts of bother and from Corrigan cross, the Valley defender miss timed his clearance and Burns pounced on the loose ball and fired home the equaliser.
The town where not finished and again the crosses were putting the Valley defence in difficulty, twice they had to scramble the ball clear. Then on 60 minutes, Dornan got caught late and had to come off injured, the town had just made their only substitution and for the last half hour they where down to 10 men. Worse to follow, and an unfortunate incident in the middle of the pitch saw Boyle and the Valley midfielder were shown the red card, that left the town down to 9 players. In true Town fashion, with their backs against the wall they started to play some great football and from one resulting attack Crilly got on the end of a cross, controlled the ball and slotted home from 10 yards. Valley where clearly rattled and once again Beckett went through on goal only to find his shot go narrowly wide. 5 minutes to go and a corner to the town, the valley cleared it a broke out, the town defence forced the Valley wide but a low cross into the town box found the Valley forward unmarked and suspiciously offside, he scored to make it 2-2. The Seconds played well and with 9 men must be happy with a draw.
Best for the town were; Crilly, Beckett, Corrigan & Lennon.
The under 17s had a fine 2-0 victory over Rossglass, the training sessions are now paying off with two well worked goals in the second half giving them victory. The pick of the goals was a brilliant Jake Carville effort from outside the penalty area. Best for the town were Ryan Lundy, Chris King and Marty McCourt who was man of the match.
There was a great turnout for the poker night last Sunday and there will be a bigger one over Easter with £1000 guaranteed pay out, more details to follow.
Tote result 5-37-16 no winners next week 2 nos £300 3 nos £800
