GIRLS UNDER 16 LEAGUE: STRAND CELTIC 2 YEATS UTD 3
Showgrounds

Our under 16 girls went down to a one goal defeat in a cracking match of the highest quality in the showgrounds on Saturday afternoon last.

Our under 16 girls were on the wrong end of the scoreline in this very tough encounter with Yeats Utd. on the Astro surface at the Show grounds on Sat.30th.The upside of an otherwise disappointing day for the Strand girls was the performance of new signing Lauren Boles who bagged a brace on her debut.

On their second outing of the 2010 season Strand u-16 girls faced both the challenge of playing a strong Yeats Utd outfit and that posed by the astro surface. Yeats seemed to get the measure of the fast surface with greater ease and duly put Strand under pressure from early on. On the quarter hour mark the home side forced a corner and managed to score direct from the resultant kick.

This seemed to spur the Strand girls as they started to put some nice passing moves together in midfield with debutante Lauren Boles and Emma Hansberry imposing themselves on the game. The battle was fierce with the pace of the ball taking its toll on both teams. Strand full backs Leah Kerrigan and Lisa Melly equipped themselves well in the face of non stop pressure from the Yeats attack. Strand's equaliser came after a spell of persistent pressure which resulted in the ball breaking to the feet of Lauren Boles who fired decisively past the Yeats 'keeper.

Soon after some good attacking work down the left found Lauren Boles again in space inside the box and she did'nt need any second chance to fire Strand in front with another well taken goal.

The game ebbed and flowed with energy sapping pace and after the interval Yeats found their second wind and began to gain the upper hand. The equaliser came about ten mins in after a shot went past Strand's stand-in keeper Nicole O'Boyle.

This was the lift that Yeats needed and they continued to edge matters against a Strand side who continued to give their all. Yeats winning goal came after the Strand defence failed to clear. Despite being behind Strand lifted their game and with pure grit and fight turned the game in terms of territory and possession in the last quarrter.This nearly paid dividends when Emma Hansberry found herself clear bearing down on goal but she misfired and sent the ball wide of the upright. The Yeats keeper brought off two excellent saves from Lauren Boles late on to send Strand home empty-handed.