Match Report

Match : 1st XI v South Antrim
Date : 2002-09-14
Venue : A
Score : 0-3
Scorers :

By Alan Burgess

Saturday saw East Antrim 1st XI open the season with a 3-0 defeat away to Senior 1 side South Antrim in the Linden Cup. After good pre-season results the East Antrim players had hoped to get a more promising result from the game, however East Antrim found the movement of the South Antrim players off the ball hard to cope with.

The game began with South Antrim dominating pocession but not really creating any clear cut chances, East looked capable of withstanding the pressure and slowly played their way into the game with some good work down the right hand side from Fraser, Caldwell and Greer. It was East Antrim who forced the first short corner of the game but unfortunatley the shot from Hermon was wide of the target. As East Antrim came more into the game they were punished for some poor defending as a South Antrim player found himself completley unmarked in the circle and put the ball beyond East keeper Hamill. As the frst half went on East Antrim were able to keep the scoreline at 1-0 with some excellent saves from Hamill. South Antrim were beginning to move the ball well and East Antrim found it hard to maintain their shape.

The second half saw South Antrim pushing forward looking for the second goal to kill off the game but the East Antrim back line remained stubborn with some excellent work from Hermon and Murphy. East soaked up a lot of pressure but rarely threatened the South Antrim goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half. East Antrim started to concede short corner after short corner and it was only a matter of time before they were punished. South Antrim made it 2-0 from a short corner with about 20 minutes remaining. The heat of the day was beginning to take it's toll on the players with the game becoming more stretched. East Antrim won a short corner and from the rebound Currie lifted the ball over the keeper only for the ball to be cleared off the line. A few minutes later at the other end East conceded a third goal after the umpire failed to spot the the ball being lifted in the circle.

East Antrim captain Alan Burgess was reasonably pleased with his side's performance against a team from a higher league but pointed out that some work is still required on the training pitch before the league campaign begins. East Antrim's next Linden Cup game is at home against Omagh on Saturday 28th September.

J Hamill
A Murphy
P Fraser
N Hermon
G Reid
D Caldwell
A Burgess
P Irwin
J Greer
L Currie
S Swann
P Grant
P Reid

Alan Murphy