Ballyvarley Lose By The Narrowest Of Margins
Date Filed: 28 March 2011
Ballyvarley U14 Hurlers started off their league campaign with a journey to St Pauls Holywood on Saturday evening.
For the first 15 minutes the game looked evenly matched. Both sides looked rusty and were unable to make any real progress at either end. Eventually a ball came in to Michael McKey who battled against the goalie to score a well deserved goal for Ballyvarley. St Pauls did not give up, they worked the ball up the field and took a goal for themselves. The rest of the half went in St Pauls favour. They clocked up another goal and a point while Ballyvarley looked second best for most balls and when they did get in a scoring position, they half heartedly passed the ball to the opposition goalie or shot wide. The game looked lost.
Half time score St Pauls 2 – 1 Ballyvarley 1 – 0
After a few positional switches and a good team talk, a completely different looking Ballyvarley team came out in the second half. There looked to be a bit of belief and confidence in all of the players. Louis Murray, Nathan Jones and Michael Jordan took some lovely points and a goal. It was then game on. St Pauls responded with a goal and two points while Michael Jordan scored a point from a free and a goal from a penalty and Stephen McKey struck over a point from a very tight angle. Ballyvarley were now two points ahead. Unfortunately in the last minute, we gave away a free very close to our goal line. The St Pauls player struck the ball which deflected off a Ballyvarley hurl and landed in the back of the net and St Pauls won by a point. It turned out to be a very competitive game and it was encouraging to see that the Ballyvarley team had the character to battle back in a game.
Final score St Pauls 4 -3 Ballyvarley 3-5
Next match Wednesday 13th April at home to Clonduff