Boys Brigade

Inter Battalion Intermediate Football

East Antrim Progress to the Semi Finals

For the second year running, Northern Ireland District decided to play the group games of the intermediate inter-battalion 11 a side football over one weekend at a central venue.  The central venue was Antrim Forum and a better weekend weather wise could not have been chosen, except perhaps if you were playing!

East Antrim had a tough group having been drawn with Lurgan and Portadown.  The other group consisted of Antrim, Ards and Belfast.  Unfortunately for the East Antrim side, no friendly matches were arranged but, having organised trials in the middle of February, a number of training sessions had taken place so the lads were well accustomed to playing together.  

East Antrim’s first match was against Lurgan Battalion on the Saturday morning.  Lurgan were on a high after beating the pre tournament favourites Portadown the previous night.  This showed in their start to the match as they dominated for the first quarter of an hour.  In this time, they scored a goal and were well worthy of their lead.  East Antrim started to come into the match as their players started to settle.  After a slightly nervous start, Andrew McAuley and Karl Hamilton especially started to tighten up in defence, Karl leading by example as the captain.  Ainsley Gray’s constant running and hustling up front started to worry the Lurgan defence and it was through this avenue that east Antrim got back into the match.  After pressurising the goalkeeper, the ball fell loose and Ainsley got reward for his work rate with a simple tap in.  This goal gave East Antrim a lift and many of the other players started to lift their game. 

Paul Stewart in central midfield was running the show, easily his best ever performance for the battalion side.  Gareth Logue up front was holding the ball up superbly and forming an excellent and very threatening partnership with Ainsley Gray.  On top of this, the set plays by East Antrim were top class, with David Thompson from the left and Ainsley Gray from the right delivering some terrific corners.

East Antrim started slowly again in the second half but soon lifted their game and dominated proceedings to the final whistle.  Karl Hamilton marshalled his defence superbly and gave Lurgan very few glimpses of goal.  Superb passing and incisive through balls were a feature of East Antrim’s second half play, with the pace of Ryan Garrett well utilised down the right.  Two goals, one each from Gareth Logue and David Thompson, capped off a marvellous display and gave the side tremendous confidence as they entered the afternoon match against Portadown.

A late tackle from behind on Paul Stewart, resulting in an injured ankle, at the end of the Lurgan match meant he would be unavailable for the afternoon.  Lurgan would later rue ruling out one of East Antrim’s best performers.  This meant a reshuffle in midfield, with David Thompson, so threatening down the left in the morning, moving into the centre for the afternoon and Graeme Gould coming in on the left.

East Antrim got off to a flying start against Portadown, scoring within 2 minutes of kick off, rather predictably through Ryan Garrett.  This was Ryan’s third match against Portadown in three years and he has now scored in all three matches.  An incredible record!

Unfortunately, fatigue caught up with the East Antrim boys, not helped by playing on what was certainly the warmest day of the year so far.  East Antrim fell 2-1 behind, largely due to poor defending and goalkeeping.  David Thompson gave the side a real lift in the second half with an equaliser but it was scarcely deserved as Portadown dominated. 

A draw would have taken East Antrim through an extremely tough group as winners but again, poor defending cost the side.  By the end of the match, the East Antrim lads were shattered, and this showed with sloppy clearances that came straight back and ended up in the net.  This happened twice in the last ten minutes and resulted in a 4-2 defeat.  The result was perhaps a little harsh on a defence which coped very well with much of what Portadown offered.  Captain Karl Hamilton led  by example, but there were many other excellent performers on show also.  One of the most notable was Ainsley Gray, who was a second year playing in a team of mainly fifth years against opposition who were also mainly fifth years.  Ainsley most certainly did not look out of place.  This young lad has a huge future in the game, that is for sure. 

It is wrong to highlight individual performers as the whole squad played their part in narrowly taking East Antrim into the semi-finals for an away date against Belfast.  Manager Donald Blair and his assistant Neil McAllister were both very proud of what the boys did out on the football pitch, representing themselves, their companies and the Boys Brigade in general with great distinction.  Having seen the standard of performance delivered against Lurgan, East Antrim will fancy their chances of progressing to the final for the second time in three years and hopefully winning the title as they did in 2002.  Fatigue cost the side against Portadown in the group stage, if the same two teams meet in the final, it will not cost East Antrim a second time!

Squad

Back Row (L to R)

Donald Blair, Graham Montgomery, Graeme Gould, Ryan Garrett, Michael Rodgers, Andrew Woodside, Paul Stewart, Gareth Logue, Andrew McAuley, Neil McAllister

Front Row (L to R)