Thistle overcome difficult conditions to see off Castle

Castle Juniors 1

WEEK two in the George Best U11 League saw Iveagh Thistle entertain Castle Juniors at Havelock Park.

Conditions were very wet as the game got under way and this attributed to the ball being hard to control for both teams early on. As a result the early play was mostly in the midfield area.

When Castle did forge an attack on goal it was dealt with by an increasingly confident backline of Russell, Scott, Woods and Hickey.

The first goal came after 10 minutes when a Moore cross from the right wing was headed out by the Castle defence but the ball fell to Thistle captain Woods, who's first time shot flew in off the underside of the bar from 20 yards.

Back came Castle Juniors on the attack, producing a one-on-one with keeper Hunter which he saved brilliantly.

Iveagh Thistle slowly gained the upper hand and looked very dangerous down the right hand side with Donnelly, McCavitt and Moore making excellent runs..

But on the stroke of half time it was the away team that scored with a tidy finish to the corner rounding off a smart move.

At half time the home side made three substitutions with Stewart, Cairns and Moore making way for Wilson, Carswell and McMillan.

The home side continued to push forward, and the second goal came from a Scott thunderbolt from outside the box into the bottom corner.

The third came two minutes later when a speculative McCavitt shot was left by the keeper to his dismay as it rolled inside the post.

To Castle Juniors' credit, although 3-1 down, they never gave up and kept pressing, but a very impressive Hickey and Scott held firm at the back. It was from one of these interventions that Thistle scored their fourth when Hickey played the ball out of defence to Donnelly, who in turn played in McCavitt on goal and he clinically dispatched the ball into the goal.

Thistle thoroughly deserved their victory and showed great maturity in keeping the ball in the ground in difficult conditions, boding well for the season to come for this young team.

Next week Thistle visit Dromore - kick-off 11am.

Team: Hunter, Russell, Scott, Hickey, Woods, Moore, McMuillan, McCavitt, Cairns, Stewart, Donnelly. Subs: Carswell, Wilson, Breen, Walker, Hunter.