Reserves narrowly lose out

Newry City Reserves narrowly failed in their bid to make the final of the Wilmor Johnston cup loosing on penalty kicks to Armagh City Reserves at the Showgrounds in Saturday’s semi final. Fielding a team which finished with seven under 18s, which owes much to Thomas King’s guidance, Gary Redpath’s side twice held the lead but could not hold onto the advantage losing out in the dreaded penalty shoot out.

In an exciting game Newry took the lead in the first half through Sean Mooney who ran onto a Lee Courtney pass before lobbing the Armagh keeper. Playing with a strong breeze Newry conceded the equalizer in the 40th minute having failed to deal with a corner kick and those present would have expected Armagh to kick on in the 2nd half with the wind at their back. And although Armagh had more possession in the 2nd half Newry defended stoutly with the home goal rarely threatened.

With the scores remaining 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes Newry started extra time the stronger and again went ahead in the first period when Neil Barr beat the offside trap to run onto a Stefan Martin pass before hitting the top corner of the Armagh net to put Newry 2-1 up. Unfortunately the home side couldn’t hold out Armagh bagging the equalizer with seven minutes to play.

Newry pushed forward in the remaining minutes and were unfortunate not to secure the win with Cian Feehan denied by the Armagh keeper when well placed and then twice Armagh defenders cleared from the goal line, first denying Barr and then Josh Cargin. With neither side able to grab a winner the match was decided on penalty kicks, the tie won by Armagh’s keeper who saved three Newry spot kicks.

Newry City Reserves: Ruddy, King, Lundy, A.Martin, Courtney, Maguire, S.Martin, Edgar, Mooney, Barr, Finn. Subs : Feehan, Campbell, Cargin, Smyth, Hadden.

Newry City U14 4 – 1 Annalong U14

by Colm Murphy, Newry City U14 Manager

Newry kept their winning ways going with a very entertaining game against Annalong at the Showgrounds last Saturday morning.

Newry started well in this match and were 1-0 up after just 10 minutes. Sean McConville slotted home after some great work by Tiernan O’Reilly and Joe Connolly. This sprung Annalong into life and they played some fine football and were unlucky not to draw level but the Newry ‘keeper was at his best. Newry scored their second goal after some more fine play and Sean McConville was the scorer again after a great pass from Shea Morgan. Back came Annalong and they responded with a blistering shot from their number 8 who give the Newry ‘keeper no chance to make it 2-1 going into half time.

Newry really upped their game in the second half, in particular wingers Caolon Reavey and Tiernan O Reilly were having a great game. Up front Sean Mc Conville and Tiarnan Murphy were testing the Annalong ‘keeper at every opportunity and goal number three came after great work from Aidan Ovesen, who was having his best game in a Newry jersey, set McConville in for his third goal. Shortly after McConville was involved again when he was fouled and Newry were awarded a penalty. Tiarnan Murphy scored to make it 4 -1 to Newry and finish the match off.

Again this was a great team performance and credit must go to Annalong for a very sporting match and we look forward to taking part in their annual tournament later in the year.

A special mention goes to our forwards McConville and Murphy who between them have scored 8 goals in two games. Also the back line of Mc Ginn, Poucher , Ovesen and Murphy have really connected over the past number of weeks and will be a problem for any team. The midfield of Morgan, Connolly, Reavey and O’Reilly along with Mackrel have played some great football to aid the forward line.

With main striker Matthew Treanor out injured, the team have shown great character and Treanor will be a great addition to the team when fully fit. Also, our Keeper Keenan has shown great composure and gets stronger with every match.

Newry bow out of Marshall Cup

Newry City’s last chance for silverware for the season slipped away on Saturday with a tame display at The Showgrounds against Intermediate league favourites Tandragee. In a game which beforehand looked likely to be the tie of the round, but which never rose to meet those expectations, Newry enjoyed lots of possession but lacked that vital cutting edge to beat the visiting keeper. Indeed for all the tidy passing displayed by both sides each goal was threatened only once in the first 45 minutes. Tandragee were first to go close after 12 minutes when a Jamie Uprichard shot from outside the box took a slight deflection from a Newry defender clipping the top of Peter Murphy’s crossbar on its way for a corner. On 34 minutes Newry had a glorious chance to take the lead, Ian Curran splitting the Tandragee defence with a through ball which Chris Fay latched onto inside the box only to place his shot too close to the Tandragee keeper Richard McGivern who deflected the ball for a corner.

The second half which saw much more goal mouth action was only minutes old when Tandragee looked sure to score when Mark Bicker was the first to a ball over the top of the Newry defence, Bicker looking up before lobbing the advancing Murphy, unfortunate to see his effort bounce the wrong side of the Newry post. The home side also came out with attacking intentions Niall Crilly pushing forward to take a pass from Sean McMullan and whip a dangerous ball across the box which the visiting defence were relieved to turn behind at the back post at the expense of a corner.

Photograph courtesy of Brendan Monaghan Photography.
Photograph courtesy of Brendan Monaghan Photography.

The visitors took the lead on 55 minutes when they broke down the right wing, Bicker cutting back inside the Newry box before taking everyone by surprise shooting from an acute angle to beat Murphy at his near post to put Tandragee a goal up. Again the home side responded this time with Gary Crummy skipping past his marker before taking the ball to the by line, the winger in the act of pulling the ball back to McMullan only for referee Kerr to rule that the ball had gone over the line for a goal kick. With play now end to end Tandragee had another good chance on 70 minutes, this time Johny Black was the player on the end of a right wing cross pulling his first time shot wide from the penalty spot.

Newry forced a series of corners on 80 minutes with McMullan coming closest to scoring when he met a Jimmy Walker cross at the near post, his glanced effort flashing narrowly wide. And the Point man created the final chance of the day for Newry with minutes left when he nodded on a throw in to his old Warrenpoint colleague Keith Johnston, the ball alas arriving too quickly for the recently introduced Johnston to get enough purchase on his shot to trouble McGivern. The tie was finally taken out of Newrys reach in the final few minutes when, with the home side heavily committed forward, Cecil Corbitt went clear down the right wing before crossing low into the box, Black atoning for his earlier miss giving Murphy little chance with an assured finish.

Speaking to Assistant Manager Ray Byrne after the game he stated “Team performances have improved in recent weeks and today we dominated for the majority of the game but we missed a cutting edge. Our shape and organisation was good and players worked hard but we needed to stretch the game more and get into goal scoring positions quicker. We had three good opportunities to score today which could have changed the result.”

Next Saturday 28th March City travel away to St.Mary’s FC in another Intermediate A League Fixture. NCAFC Travel Club will be running a bus to the game which will be departing from the Stonebridge at 2pm sharp. All are welcome.

Newry City AFC Team: Murphy, Crilly, McCaul, O’Connor, Hand, Curran, Walker, McMahon, Crummy, McMullan, Fay. Subs: Edgar, Mooney, Johnston, Durnin, Johnston, Smaryginas.

Photographs Courtesy of Brendan Monaghan Photography.

Last Man Standing Round 7 teams

Good luck to the remaining 8 people in round 7 of our Last Man Standing competition. Their picks this week are:

Eric Wilson Spurs
Philip Wilson Spurs
Mo Ruddy Spurs
Lauren Redpath Spurs
Brian Elmore Spurs
Martin McLoughlin Spurs
Mickey Rocks Southampton
Joe Bennett Everton

Newry City U14 6 – 4 Camlough Rovers U14

by Colm Murphy, Newry City U14 Manager

Newry played their return fixture with Camlough on Saturday last in what turned out to be a very entertaining game with some great football played by both teams.

Newry started the brightest and attacked the Camlough defence with some great passing football. Within 10 minutes they were rewarded when a penalty was awarded for a foul on Sean Mc Conville. Tiarnan Murphy, who was playing up front instead of the injured Matthew Treanor, hit the penalty kick against the underside of the crossbar but was first to the rebound and slotted past the ‘keeper to make it 1-0 to Newry. Right from the kick off Newry attacked again and Sean Mc Conville was quick off the mark after a clinical through ball from Shea Morgan to chip the keeper and make it 2-0. This was a good half for Newry which was rewarded with another goal when Tiarnan Murphy played in Tiernan O’Reilly to make it 3-0. Camlough pulled a goal back just before half time when a rasping shot caught Newry out and ended up in the net to make it 3-1 at the interval.

Camlough started the more confident team in the second half and soon had another goal back after another long range shot ended up in the back of the net. Newry began to panic a little and sure enough Camlough got another goal to make it 3-3. Game on! After some tactical changes Newry found their feet again and started to play some great passing football and reaped the rewards when Sean Mc Conville placed a beautiful shot over the Camlough keeper to make it 4-3. Soon after Tiernan O Reilly made it 5-3 before Camlough again replied with a 4th goal. After this it was end to end play from both teams but Newry finally sealed the victory when Tiarnan Murphy made it 6-4 and notched up his second hat-trick of the season with a well-placed free kick to calm the Newry nerves.

Credit most go to both teams for a highly entertaining match which was played in a great sporting manner. It was great for the Newry lads to get back to winning ways. This keeps them in contention for a high league placing at end of season. This was a great team effort and well done to all.