Both Carryduff Colts senior teams made history on Saturday when they secured their first wins in their debut season in the prestigious Northern Ireland Amateur League.
The firsts, who paid the price for taking their chances in the opening game and lost 1-0 to 22nd Old Boys, got themselves back on track with a terrific 3-2 win away to Whitehead Eagles.
And Seconds were even more impressive with an 8-2 win at home to Rooftop II.
Firsts’ report
The Firsts started off shakily and were 1-0 down early on but it could have been much worse had it not been for the heroics of goalkeeper Odhran Devlin who turned in a man of the match performance with some brilliant saves.
And he nearly turned into goal scoring hero when one of his monster kick out bounced over the goalkeeper into the net only for the referee to mysteriously disallow it for a foul on the goalkeeper even though no one was near him.
Colts tightened up at the back with Paul Murphy in particular having a superb game while Fergus McBride and Michael Deeny got control of the midfield as the team started to look a bit more like the team of last season.
Darragh Brownlee, who was a danger throughout, went close with a coupling of rattling efforts before McBride equalised halfway through the half when his cross from the left drifted over the goalkeeper’s head into the net.
Colts continued to look dangerous particularly from Brownlee’s set pieces with skipper Rory McDonnell just failing to get on the end of one after the excellent Joe Sweeney headed back across the box.
Colts took the lead at the start of the second half when Mattie McNally was just beaten to a through ball by the goalkeeper but the ball bounced off a defender and back into McNally’s path and he tapped it into the back of the net.
Colts continued to press but were hit by a sucker punch on the hour mark when Whitehead equalised and three subs Kealan Devlin, Aidan Magee and Paul Maguire were introduced for Sweeney, Doherty and McEvoy, who all had put in a terrific shift.
Shortly after the Colts took the lead when McBride found McNally and he scored his second goal with a neat finish. With Magee causing real problems for the Eagles’s defence with some scintillating runs and Kealan Devlin providing real presence, Carryduff could easily have extended their lead.
But Eagles pushed to get back into the game in last 15 minutes but with Sparky Hegney, McDonnell, Murphy and Maguire defending heroically, and Odhran Devlin continuing to pull off heroic saves they held out to complete the win.
Colts: O.Devlin, Sweeney (Maguire), Murphy, McDonnell, Hegney, McBride, McEvoy (Magee), Deeny, Doherty (K.Devlin), Doherty, McNally, Brownlee.
Seconds’ Report
The Seconds took an early lead through Johnny Henry but were soon pegged back by Rooftop II who equalised shortly afterwards.
But the excellent Colts raced into a 4-1 lead before the interval and although Rooftop managed to reduce the arrears at the beginning of the second half Carryduff went on to score another four goals,and complete a great 4-2 win that that takes them into third place in the 3F table.
Henry was the goal scoring hero grabbing four goals while Conor Magee helped himself to two and Niall Dempsey and Owen Lavery grabbed one apiece.
Colts: Mulholland, McNally (E. Neill) Holden, Crompton, McDonnell, Maynes (Lavery), Magee (Dempsey), Henry, J.Neill, Cassidy.