Glentoran Football Club - Ballymena U 11's 4

Ballymena U 11's 4 - 4 Glentoran U 11's

Published on Monday, 08 August 2011 21:02

Boys fight back and just miss out on the win.
10:00 O'clock on a Saturday morning and the boys step of the bus with their parents on a cloudy but warm day in Ballymena. An impressive setup at the showgrounds with the pitches looking in good order for the days proceedings. The squad hit the field after a quick change and began their routinely warm ups missing two familiar faces in Ryan Tweedie who was on holiday and Kurtis McGookin who was drafted up to the 12's for the day.

Before kick off an elderly gentleman up watching his grandson for the sky Blues pointed out who he thought the home sides danger man may be and just over an hour later he proved he knew what he was talking about with the young number ten, who is a regular across to Old Trafford as an academy player there, banged in all of Ballymena's goals on the day.

KICK-OFF and both teams flew into every challenge with every determination and heart as if it had of been a regular league or cup game with everything to play for and not a pre season friendly. With nothing between the sides early on the skilful No.10 cut inside from the by line and made his way to the edge of the box when he was met with the out swinging leg of Jamie Craig sending him to the deck and winning a free kick in a very dangerous position. Up he stepped to take the free kick and buried high into the net over young Reece Caldwell's head putting the home side 1-0 in front.

The young Glens never let it phase them and went about their business in trying to pull level with some fine football being worked out wide with in form Ben Walker seeing a lot of the ball. The Glens pushed on but the sky blues defence was soaking up everything they had and then tried to hit their target man on the counter. The number 10 started to show his quality when on their 2nd attack he wriggled along the edge of the box avoiding be tackled by three or four Glen men and as it looked to be getting away from him he pulled the trigger to again catch the East Belfast men cold and hammer the ball past Reece for the second time in ten minutes, 2-0 Ballymena and now the Glens began to look a little shell shocked.

The Glens pulled their socks up and decided their was no chance of them ever rolling over and again started playing their football with notable early performances from young Bradley McAfee looking sharp in the left back position and when the ball fell in Midfield Sean Gallagher took a lovely touch and started to take the play forward beating one player before a second clattered him from the side injuring the young midfield Dynamo in the process. This forced a change that would prove to be the most influential of the day when he came off for Wing Wizzard Alfie May, who immediately took up a more attacking role dropping bruiser Josh Brush from centre forward to centre mid to keep the middle of the park strong. Not even on the pitch 5 minutes and Alfie May found himself latch onto the end of a beautiful and precise through ball to the back post from hard working Ben Walker to slip the ball past the keeper and hit the back of the net to half the lead and make it 2-1.

With the Glens given a new lease of life you'd of been forgiven to think it would of bred the confidence to push on and find the equalizer before half time but sadly that wasn't to be. Just when the Ballymena number 10 hard started to go quiet he popped up in the box in what probably would be Ballymena's third attack of the game to bury a third for the home side and reaching his well deserved hat trick.

Not long to the half and the boys dusted themselves off and found young striker Kyle Wilgaus unmarked and through on goal, everyone held there breath before the young lad dispatched a lovely slip under the keeper to what everyone thought was another Glentoran goal,but not to be as with this the first of some very dubious decisions from the ref he blew the whistle just as young Kyle scored and said that the ball had went out for a throw in a full 10 to 15 seconds earlier which only seemed to become apparent after Kyle beat the home sides keeper. This left everyone a bit frustrated as one, it wasn't out and two it was blew so far after the alleged incident and not until the Glens goal that it put a bitter taste in most peoples mouths but unknown to everyone at the time this wasn't going to be the last or even the worst of the referees decisions on the day.

HALF TIME

A bit of tinkering at half time saw Ethan Carry pushed back up into his usual central midfield position to provide a little more bite and Dylan Harris & Paddy Crookshanks take to the field for Josh Brush & Kyle Wilgaus. The Glens started the second half with purpose and really started to stamp their authority on the game penning Ballymena in their own half and when Alfie May found his way through everybody thought that he had dragged it to far to the right and left himself with too tight an angle to finish but the young lad proved us all wrong including his Dad who thought his effort hit the side netting only to see it reach the far corner sending all the kids celebrating and the parents cheering.

By this point everything was starting to click and Ballymena were getting everything threw at them including the kitchen sink, Ethan Carry was winning everything in midfield, Taylor Tynan was finding pass after pass, wingers David Sloan and Ben Walker were giving the full backs nightmares with repeated attacks and crosses, Alfie May seemed to be on the end of every positive attack, Jamie Craig and Paddy Crookshanks were commanding at the back holding the backline firm, Dylan Harris was throwing himself into every challenge as usual, the outstanding full backs Dylan Bell and Bradly Mcafee chopped them down and harassed them until they gave up the ball at every attempt and in the process making a great case for those positions being made their own this year and all this whilst limiting Ballymena's appearance in the Glentoran half to practically zero.

Matty Swann took to the field for the impressive Ben Walker in the hunt for that elusive equalizer. Ten minutes into the half a cross bounced along the Ballymena box and when trialist Jamie looked to have chested it down for Alfie May to finish it was judged to have brushed his arm on the way and the referee disallowed his second goal of the day ruling out the effort. As the referee got worse the boys got better and when Taylor Tynan unleashed a demon of an effort from 25 yards out it was only ever going to end up in one place and that place was in the top right hand corner with a thunder bolt of a shot, 3-3.

The Glentoran entourage were again outraged when Alfie May who was a mile onside beat the back four and finished coolly passed the keeper only to find that the referee had again ruled out another good goal for the third time as another Glentoran player, who wasn't interfering with play was assessed as being offside. The referee again and again turned a blind eye to the constant shirt pulling on Glentoran players leaving the boys and the sideline very frustrated but when Man of The Match Alfie May popped up at the back post to slot home his third of the day it finally looked like the kids were going to get what their efforts deserved commanding a very convincing and deserved 4-3 lead.

With 5 minutes left to play Alfie picked up the ball deep in his own half and began a run upfield, kick starting another Glentoran attack but when he got upended and clattered from the side everybody and their dog could see it was as blatant a free kick as you'll ever come across. Everybody but the referee that is who was fast becoming farcical who had decided in his wisdom for some unknown reason to give a drop ball sending a wave of confusion along the line with players and coaches left with a mass of bemused and puzzled faces. With the drop ball finding a sky blue player first the dangerous number 10 who had disappeared in the second half found it fall kindly to him on the edge of the box and with his and Ballymenas fourth shot of the day it also found their fourth goal as he hammered high to Reeces right in another fine finishing display from the young Manchester United Academy starlet making it 4-4.

The referees performance was epitomised when David Sloan found acres of space and created a one on one chance for Alfie May who evaded his marker and burst through leaving just the keeper to beat only for the referee to cruelly blow the full time whistle and take the chance away from him to the jeers of the sideline.

FULL TIME and the boys can take a lot of heart from the performance fighting their way back from a two goal disadvantage and once the kinks were ironed out and they began to put their stamp on the game it only ever looked like it was going one way, totally dominating the sky Blues in the second half the boys will have learned a lot and gained a little extra experience and character which will stand them in good stead for the tough season ahead.