St. Patrick’s seniors travelled to Toomebridge on Saturday evening to contest their Junior Championship tie against Ballycastle. Given the recent run of results, the team travelled in determined mood to meet the division 5 leaders. Despite some inclement weather in the days leading up to the game both the conditions and the playing surface were perfect for a good game of football. St Patrick’s handed championship debuts to 5 of the impressive minor squad with a further 4 minors on the bench. Ballycastle found their stride from the throw in and dominated both territory and possession in the opening fifteen minutes with the locals expending most of their energy in defensive mode. On occasions when St Patrick’s did control the ball and make advances into the Ballycastle half possession was frequently turned over by misplaced passing or wrong pass choices. Ballycastle on the other hand were working scoring oppportunities well with full forward Cassidy the fulcrum for most attacks. After fifteen minutes the score was 1-05 to 0-01 in Ballycastle’s favour and the game looked in danger of running away from the locals. A free kick on the half way line was to prove the inspiration that Lisburn needed. Following a foul on Eoin Fay, skipper Tomas Fay picked the ball up and composed himself before launching a mammoth kick over from 50 metres. This appeared to settle the nerves of the Lisburn side and they took the game to Ballycastle for the remainder of the half with forward Paul Anderson converting his second point of the game. Half-time came with the scores 1-05 to 0-03 in favour of Ballycastle but with Lisburn finishing the half strongly. The second half started very evenly with Lisburn running the ball more freely than the first and keeping possession well. Ciaran Fay converted the first point of the half for Lisburn and this was quickly followed by a score from his brother Eoin. Ballycastle replied with a point before Ciaran Fay converted a well worked chance with his cultured left boot. Eoin and Ciaran Fay then combined to present the ball to Anderson and he duly obliged with a goal to bring the Lisburn side within 2 points. St Parick’s were very much on top at this point and another passing move opened up the Ballycastle defence but a mistimed pass in front of goal allowed Ballycastle to clear and the chance to go in front was gone. The missed opportunity seemed to drive Ballycastle on and the physical aspect of their game moved up a gear and the match entered its final quarter with Lisburn still playing catch-up. Both sides were now finding it difficult to create any clear goalscoring chances but Ballycastle and Cassidy in particular were more accurate with free kick opportunities that came their way and opened up a five point lead again. Lisburn were still chasing and contesting every ball and Hugh McGurnaghan intercepted to set up Eoin Fay for his second point of the day. Anderson completed the scoring for Lisburn before Ballycastle finished strongly with 3 unanswered points to leave the final score Ballycastle 1-14 ; St Patrick’s ,Lisburn 1-08. Scorers for Lisburn were : Paul Anderson 1-03; Ciaran Fay and Eoin Fay 0-02 each and Tomas Fay 0-1. Although deeply disappointed to lose the game St Patrick’s can take heart from the manner in which they played the last 55 minutes and will rue their slow start to the game and uncharacteristic errors which left them too much to pull back. This was an opportunity to gauge if this Lisburn senior squad could be competitive in a higher league and on this showing the answer must be yes. With this taste of the standard of division 5 football the senior squad are fully motivated and focussed on winning their remaining league fixtures and win promotion.Man of the Match for Lisburn was skipper Tomas Fay who led by example and rallied the team when the game could easily have run away from them.
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