November 28th 2009 – Home

League

Orangefield 1st XI v Ballynahinch Utd

Orangefield have the opportunity to move back up to 3rd in the league today with a victory over Ballynahinch Utd. It was important for the home side to start quickly and not let the opposition get early control of the game. A good warm up beforehand got the players in the right frame of mind and it paid off early on.

Orangefield played the ball around well, moving it in through midfield and onto the front men who were making some good runs. Five minutes in and Harvey received the ball in the box. A neat move took him past the defender and fired underneath the keeper to make it 1-0 to the home side.

Ballynahinch were still shouting at each other after the first goal went in when Clarkey nipped in on a through ball and rounded the keeper well to make it 2-0 with 10 minutes gone. Orangefield moved forward looking to kill the game off early, punishing any mistakes made in the Ballynahinch defence. It wasn’t long before Clarke Dempster stepped up to hit a cracker that is an easy contender for goal of the season. Jonny Gibson laid the ball inside with a neat first touch for Clarkey, who bent a first time effort high into the top corner from 30 yards out. A great goal from a player going for top goalscorer for the 3rd season in a row.

With Orangefield going forward so well, it took a small lapse of concentration while defending a throw in to let Ballynahinch get one back. With some midfield players not picking up the defence wasn’t organized quickly enough and the Ballynahinch man knocked it over the top of Taylor giving him little chance of keeping it out.

It wasn’t long though before Orangefield restored their three goal advantage. A brave challenge by Tony Craig in the middle of the park saw the ball spin forward into the Ballynahinch box, and Harvey wasted no time in firing a great shot into the far corner of the net to finish the half on a high.  

Half-time: 4 - 1

Ballynahinch pushed another player forward in the second half and tried to exert some pressure on the home defence. Glenn Taylor was having a good game in the Orangefield net which gave plenty of confidence to the players in front of him. He was unable to keep out a second goal from the away side however when the Ballynahinch forward broke the offside trap and sped through to fire into the net. This gave Ballynahinch a bit of hope, and along with a lack of discipline in the Orangefield team could have let them back into the game. The referee missed a few bad tackles by a couple of Ballynahinch midfielders and rather than playing the game out as in the first half, a couple of players got involved and ended up getting booked. Hopefully a lesson learnt on how not to let teams affect the good play this Orangefield team is capable of.

All in all though, another 3 points, well deserved after a great first half performance.  

Full-time: 4 -2

Lineup: G. Taylor, R.Hardy, S. McNaul, A.D’Arcy (Capt), D.Wilson, B.Reynolds, J.Gibson, T.Craig, D.Cousins, J. Dempster, Harvey Subs: D.Finlay, D.Tittensor, S.Hamilton