Sparky shines as seniors sparkle

The senior teams continued their remarkable run of form with both teams winning once again on Saturday.

The firsts had a terrific 3-1 win over Killough who they have always struggled against while the seconds defeated Dromara III to retain second place in the table.

The firsts made it four wins on the bounce with their best performance of the season and there is real confidence coursing though the veins of the team just now.

They had a number of chances early on before striker Calum McSorley swooped to score his fifth goal of the season midway through the first half.

With Kealan Devlin and Fergus McBride controlling the midfield it was no more than Carryduff deserved and on the half hour they made it two when Sparky Hegney timed his run to perfection to get on the end of well placed driven corner by Michael Deeny and he cleverly directed the ball beyond the goalkeeper reach.

Colts had several opportunities to stretch their lead with Stevie Doherty and Adam Shilliday causing problems in the wide areas but it was Killough who were next on the scoresheet when they scored with a free kick just before half time.

Colts came under pressure at the beginning of the second half but Hegney, Rory McDonnell, having his best game of the season, the excellent and consistent Paul Maguire and the marauding Paul Murphy put on a terrific defensive display in front of keeper John Mulholland, who once again was secure and organised the defence superbly.

Carryduff continued to break quickly when the opportunity arose and Doherty forced then goalkeeper into a superb save before setting up McBride who was also thwarted by the keeper.

Eoin McDonnell was introduced in place of Deeny who had put in a great shift in his first start in two months and Arron Waddell replaced the industrious McSorley.

Soon after, there was also serious concern for the home team when the impressive Hegney collapsed to the ground and the game had to be stopped for several minutes. Thankfully he recovered within a few  minutes and enough to demand his name was in the headline of the match report for scoring his first of the season!

He was replaced by Conor Cassidy who helped Colts get back on top and soon after the game was put out of the reach of the visitors when Shilliday, who had tortured the full back with a virtuoso wing performance, once again beat his man and fired in a superb left foot cross which Waddell failed to reach but Doherty got on the end of it to score his ninth in five games.

Carryduff avoided a nervous end when Killough missed a penalty with two minutes remaining which had been inexplicably awarded by the ref after the worst dive since Peter Kay jumped off the diving board in the John Smith (not the seconds manager!) TV ads.

This is a team that is starting to go places and hopefully the success will encourage more support on a Saturday afternoons.

Colts: Mulholland, Murphy, Maguire, McDonnell, Hegney (Cassidy), Doherty, Devlin, McSorley (Waddell) Deeny (McDonnell), Shilliday.

* The seconds also produced one of their best performance of the season to see off a useful Dromara team in a hard fought game.

Indeed Dromara were the better team in the first half and could have been in front only for goalkeeper Nathan Lyons pulling off two great saves and goal-line clearances from man of the match Conor O’Toole and Luke Holden.

However, Carryduff started to find their feet in the second half with Eoin Madden in particular taking the game by the scruff of the neck. He set up two goals for outstanding centre back Jack Crompton and Jordy Toal, who is in fine goal scoring form, and both finished with excellent first time strikes.

Eoin Doherty, who has also been finding the net with increased regularity, added a third to make the points safe and set them up for a top two clash against Celtic Bhoys next week at Lough Moss with the opportunity to go second.