by Colm Murphy, Newry City U14 Manager

Newry played their first league home match against neighbours Camlough Rovers on Saturday last at the Showsgrounds back pitch. In a highly entertaining game Newry started slowly to a more physical Camlough team, who had the first chance to take the lead but squandered the opportunity. This sprung Newry into life who started to play some excellent football, moving the ball around and they created numerous chances, only to be denied by some fine goalkeeping. They eventually went ahead through a Tiernan O’Reilly penalty after a hand ball in the penalty area by one of the Camlough defenders. Newry were on top of their game at this stage and a second penalty followed only this time O’Reilly blasted wide. Halftime approached and Newry for all their good play went in only the one goal to the good.

The second half started bright for Newry and again after some good play along the wing by ex-Camlough player Caolan Reavey, Newry earned a free kick about 10 yards outside the penalty area. Tiarnan Murphy showed great skill by curling the ball over the wall and into the top corner of the net to make it 2-0 to Newry. From the Camlough kick off Newry regained possession and should have gone 3-0 up only to be denied by the post after some great work by Shea Morgan and Joseph Connolly. This seemed to spring life into the Camlough team and after some fine passing their efforts resulted in a corner kick. From the resulting corner the Newry defence were unable to clear their lines and Camlough pulled a goal back to make the match 2-1 in favour of Newry City. The last 15 minutes saw Newry soak up attack after attack from a rejuvenated Camlough forward line. Eventually the final whistle sounded and Newry had another win.

While it was great to get another win, Newry need to work on finishing their opponents off earlier and taking their opportunities when they arise. There were some fine individual performances from Tiarnan Russell and Aidan Ovesen in defence with Shea Morgan stamping his authority in midfield and Caolon Reavey, Tiernan O Reilly and Tiarnan Murphy causing a lot of problems up front. Again though it is the overall team performance that wins games and Newry showed this to earn a hard fought victory.

I would like to say thanks to the many parents that showed up for the game and to John Moffatt (U13 Manager) and Mickey Morgan (U15 Manager) for coming down and supporting the lads. Next game is away to Tullyvallen in Newtownhamilton this Saturday at 10am.

by Colm Murphy, Newry City U14 Manager

Newry played their second league game against Ballybot Celtic on Saturday at the Barley Field. Away from home for the second week running, Newry started the game with some quick passing and neat football, putting pressure on the home team right from the off.

Ballybot were finding it hard to cope with the quick movement of the Newry attack and found themselves a goal down after some excellent footwork from Matthew Trainor found Tiernan O’Reilly on the left wing, who skipped past a Ballybot defender and slotted the ball into the net to put Newry 1-0 up.

The momentum was now with Newry and although Ballybot tried to get back into the game they found the Newry defence, in particular Tiarnan Russell, in excellent form. Indeed from a long ball played by Russell, this set Sean Mc Conville in on goal only to be denied by an excellent save from the Ballybot ‘keeper.

Goal number two wasn’t far away and after a foul on Matthew Trainor, Tiarnan Murphy floated a beautiful free kick to the far post where Tiernan O’Reilly sent the ball crashing into the back of the net to make it 2-0 to Newry. With half-time approaching fast, Newry looked to be on their way to another victory.

It was Ballybot who came out of the blocks quicker in the second half. After some positional switches in the Ballybot midfield, they started to gain control of the match and soon shortened arrears when a a blistering shot gave the Newry ‘keeper no chance. 2-1 and Match on!

Newry began to struggle and could have conceded another goal but for the quick feet of Tiarnan Russell who was having a fantastic game in the Newry defence. The game flowed from side to side but Newry were caught on the break by the home side and after some nice passing Ballybot levelled the match at 2-2. Newry struggled to get hold of the ball and apart from one or two attacks they were limited to a couple of strikes on goal. Ballybot could have sealed victory at the death only for some fine defensive work from Newry. In the end both sides had to settle for a draw!

While it was nice to get such an excellent start, a lot of work needs to be done to finish opponents off and this is something that management will work on. Again it was team work that got Newry through this match and this is something that the team can be proud of. Ballybot are a strong side and will certainly cause problems for many teams this season, so to get a draw away from home is a great credit to all. Next week’s game is our first home match of the league campaign against Camlough Rovers, so it’s important that we regroup at training and prepare well for another tough game.