Ladies in stalemate

The game started tentatively, neither team wanting to give the opposition the upper hand. It took the Bann girls a while to get used to the style of play on a sand based pitch but soon began to build up possession.

Neither team had many clear cut chances with the Banbridge girls finding it hard to make use of play in kilkeels crowded ‘D’.

At the other end, the back line of Ashlea Bell, Diane McMillen, Amanda Morton and Alex Gordon coped well with Kilkeels direct ball approach. On the occasions when Kilkeel did break into the Bann ‘D’, goal keeper Sarah McCabe took charge expertly to clear the ball before any clean shots were taken.

Banbridge won back to back corners which Alex Gordon struck well from the top of the circle but were broken down well by the opposition.

Banbridge took control of the second half from the whistle. Great passing work between Debbie whitten, Naomi Robb, Megan McKenna and Cathy Rees ensured that the forward line were consistently fed the ball helping Banbridge keep possession.

The opposition’s defence were consistently under pressure from shots, deflections and short corners, but the forward line up of Rachel Cairns, Amy Atkinson, Anna Moore and Sarah McCracken were very unlucky not to get the ball in the back of the net.

Despite numerous chances from the Bann girls, kilkeel still looked strong on the counter attack which the Bann defence coped with well.

Kilkeel struck a good ball from a penaltly corner which deflected off the bann keeper but which was correctly deemed to be above back board height and as a result disallowed.

Great tackles from the sweeper Diane McMillen kept Kilkeel from the ‘D’ the score at 0:0 at the final whistle.The girls take on Dromore Firts on Saturday at home.