Poor weekend for Youths

The Under 11’s narrowly lost 5-4 to Magherafelt Sky Blues Galaxy, the Under 13’s lost heavily 6-0 to Ballymena United and the Under 14’s went down 1-0 to Armagh City Youth.

This weekend at Ballysally the U10’s face Ballymena United (KO 10.30am); U11’s face Ballymoney United (KO 10am), Lisneal College is the venue for the U13’s NIBFA third round tie against Ballymoor (KO 11am); also at Lisneal the U14’s face Bertie Peacock Youth (KO 11am); the U15’s come up against Bloomfield in the NIBFA Cup second round while the Under 19’s entertain Portadown III.

Institute U14...0

Armagh City U14...1

Saturday’s match against an Armagh side who have won 13 of the 15 league games this season showed just how far Institute have come in their debut year in the National League A.

It was an extremely close game which easily could have gone either way, the only goal of the game an effort that just crept inside the post past an outstretched Lamberton.

’Stute started the match well but it was the away side who got the first shot off drawing a top class save from Adam Lamberton in goal, throwing himself full length to push the ball over the bar.

The Waterside men pushed on and were creating good crossing opportunities down the left hand side as O’Brien, Kinkaid, Cloete and Smallwoods combined on more than one occasion. Waterstone was finding good space in midfield and was unfortunate with a few well placed throughballs to the forwards.

Against the run of play though Armagh scored, the ball breaking nicely for the forward out of a tackle and he stretched to just roll the ball inside the post.

The second half was a real battle, ’Stute really dominated the midfield against a side which is used to controlling games. Love was putting in some fine tackles in the midfield as were all the defence when called upon.

The combination play again down the left created a great opportunity as Smallwoods overlapped, pulled the ball back from the line to Waterstone, who’s shot just went wide. It was a superb move, and a goal to make the game all square would have been just reward.

The game was stopped for 15 minutes near the end due to a bad injury for an Armagh player and it took the impetus out of the game meaning the home side were unable to find a goal to match their performance.

The match showed that Institute can hold their own and compete with anyone in the league and the players look forward to carrying this attitude on into the next match.

Institute U11...4

Magherafelt Sky Blues Galaxy...5

Institute’s U11’s returned to action for the first time since early December and despite the defeat they were glad to be back out competing again.

From the whistle both teams started slow but Magherafelt settled quickly and they were rewarded with two goals. A third goal for Magherafelt also followed after some confusion between the Institute players. An OG from ’Stute helped the scoreline to reach 4-0 to Magherafelt.

After a few substitutions Institute started to settle and they were rewarded with a super first goal slotted in by G Simpson, while R Gamble worked well to get the second goal for ’Stute, just before the break.

From the start of the second half, ’Stute stepped it up with some great performances and battling from the back line. E Berry eased in the third goal for ’Stute and Magherafelt slipped in a fifth.

L Curry took a free kick and caused a bit of a stir in the Magherafelt box and a few corners from G Simpson failed to give a result.

Then Alex Dougherty had a great run up the wing to pass a perfectly timed through ball to G Simpson who put it past the keeper for his second of the day and bringing the sore to 5-4.

Caitlyn Berry was named Player of the Match from the Magherafelt side. Well played Luke Curry who was outstanding the whole way through the game and thanks also to Harrison Lea who played today. Keep up the great team work and well done to ALL players today and to Matthew Cooke on his first game for ’Stute, he worked hard on the pitch.

Institute U11: R Boyd, W Cloete, L Curry, C Berry, J Molloy, G Simpson, R Gamble, H Lea, E Berry, A Dougherty, M Cooke, J Arbuckle.

Institute U15...2

Eglinton U16...1

Institute’s U15 boys faced Eglinton U16’s a friendly on Saturday at Wilton Park. ’Stute had Diarmuid McDermott and Stevie Connor absent so it was a chance for others with captain Cameron Hancock on the bench.

The first half was a scrappy affair as the ’Stute lads failed to retain the ball and gave possession away regularly especially down the right. Eglinton went into half time 1-0 up when they broke the offside trap to finish calmly.

’Stute brought on Hancock, Deighan and McGonigle at half-time and the tempo of the game went up. Lynch equalised for ’Stute after a well worked move.

Lynch also had a few other half chances but failed to convert. Reece Adair was causing Eglinton problems out wide and created a few chances, with Ryan Henry firing home the winner late-on.