NAFL 1B
Newcastle Town 2 Greenisland 0
By Alan Imrie
NEWCASTLE put a severe dent in second-placed Greenisland’s Amateur League 1B title aspirations following a 2-0 win at Bear Park.
The Town’s rich vein of home form, five wins and clean sheets in as many games, has steered the team away from the relegation zone with just five away games remaining in the team’s current campaign.
Having previously beaten Newcastle 5-1, in the first game of the season, Greenisland arrived at Bear Park confident that they would secure the points that would enable them to close the gap on league leaders Acquinas FC.
Unfortunately for the Antrim men, Newcastle were equally desperate to collect the points to ease their own relegation worries.
The game started at a frantic pace, with Greenisland Dallas, Moffatt and MaCauley battling for midfield supremacy with Dodd’s, McCartan, Mulholland and Adoyi.
Greenisland were moving the ball around, and probing the home defence, with Sinclair, Moore and Bingham all trying to get the better of Newcastle defenders Philip Bonny, and Conor Hayes.
Newcastle gradually began to carve out some chances, with Kian Mulholland’s pace causing Greenisland centre halves Connor Cunningham and Jordan Diver some anxious moments.
Equally troublesome, for the Greenisland defence, was James Savage, who tormented fullbacks Flynn Roscoe and Connell McGeough with his direct running.
In the 25th minute, Savage eventually got the better of his opponents as he collected a cross from Leigh Moore, and fired a shot past keeper Luis Finlay from the edge of the box.
The opening goal spurred Greenisland to surge forward and Newcastle defenders Bonny, Hayes, McAreavey and Doyle had to defend desperately to prevent Sinclair, Dallas, Moore and MaCauley from netting an equaliser.
The report goes on to highlight the work of Philip Dodds and Pearce McCarthy. Read it now in the current issue.
