Bangor II XI took to a well manicured Ballykillare on Saturday afternoon, looking to do something that no other team in Ulster has done this season: take points off Lisnagarvey II’s. The presence of official umpires and the good form shown prior to the extended Christmas break gave the Bangor team every confidence that they could take the much prized Lisnagarvey scalp. In the end, these hopes were, however, misplaced.

The first half was an open and entertaining one with both teams enjoying periods of supremacy. From the off, Bangor set to their task and enjoyed the lions share of possession. The effort and endeavour did not deliver the number of chances that it probably merited, and as a result goal scoring chances were few and far between. As the half wore on, Lisnagarvey’s confidence grew, and as the umpiring became more unpredictable, as demonstrated bt Chris McClean’s temporary suspension, the official’s influence on the game increased.

As the half evolved Garvey created a number of chances both from open play and from short corners. Bangor had their man of the match, goalkeeper Ryan Cherry, to thanks for not conceding a goal. Garvey built on this domination and as the half ended, Bangor were satisfied to have weathered the storm to go into the break at nil each.

After some spirited words of encouragement at the break, Bangor turned to play into a setting sun, which had decided to make an appearance for the first time during the game. This made like a little more difficult for the Bangor men, but as the half began there was a quiet confidence that an upset might be on the cards.

This bubble of optimism was popped 10 minutes into the half when, after a clear offence by a Garvey attacker was not picked up by the officials, they went on the open the scoring, somewhat against the run of play. Resilience and fortitude are traits that the II’s have demonstrated many times in the league over the last few years, and these again would be required if anything was to be salvaged from the fixture.

As events unfolded, damage limitation became more of the focus, rather than a stirring comeback. Moments after the first goal of the game there was a mêlée on the edge of the Bangor 23 with raised sticks and tempers leading to the dismissal of Allen Irwin. It could be argued that others could have been punished for their parts in the events, but retaliation should not be excused. From the resulting free, Garvey scored their second, and despite great endeavour by the 10 remaining Bangor players, which included spirited defending, as well as some incisive attacking play, seeing McIlhagga score a conciliation goal for the home team, it was always going to be difficult ask. In the end Garvey ran out comfortable winners, scoring several times on the break against the 10 men of Bangor, and in the end ran out 5 – 1 winners.

Overall this was a spirited performance by the team, and it would have been interesting to see the final result if 11 players had remained on the pitch for both sides. Another excellent, man of the match  performance from Ryan Cherry for the II X1, and good luck to him in his exams over the next few weeks.