Winning start for Banbridge Ladies

The first half started strongly for the Bann side with positive, possessive passing between the midfield and forward line.

The ball was being worked well around the opposition resulting in numerous chances in the ‘D’. It wasn’t long before a sharp pass from Naomi Robb to Rachel Cairns was slipped ‘90’ for Amy Atkinson who slotted it in the net bringing the score to 1:0.

Banbridge dropped the tempo of the game after scoring allowing the Dungannon side to attack, putting the Bann defence of Ashlea Bell, Amanda Morton, Diane McMillan, Alex Gordon and Megan McKenna under pressure.

The opposition struck a good ball deep into the ‘D’ which took an unfortunate deflection giving an own goal equaliser. After this the Bann heads went down and despite controlling play previous to this, the confidence of the team seemed to drop as did the standard of play bringing the game up to half time.

Banbridge were determined to get back on top and started the second half well, going back to their passing style of play with great pivot work between the midfield line-up of Cathy Rees, Naomi Robb Debbie Whitten and Sarah McCracken.

A great ball from Diane McMillen to Rachel Cairns was slipped to Amy Atkinson who fed the ball into the ‘D’ for Anna Moore to finish well on the reverse.

The Dungannon side responded quickly with an equaliser from well worked open play bringing the score to 2-2.

Banbridge weren’t content to share the points and lifted their play as a team resulting in a lot of possession in the opposition’s half.

Amanda Morton, after a great run up the pitch, fed the ball to Anna Moore who deflected it to the penalty spot where Sarah McCracken was waiting and slipped it back post for Rachel cairns to slot past the keeper.

The girls were happy to start their season, after promotion, with a win and look forward to their game against Kilkeel next week.