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Northend United 7 Anderstown Community 0 Saturday 25th February 2023

Northend started this match on the front foot with Cara McKay and Caitlin Kelly forcing Anderstown to concede an early corner. Caitlin’s in swinging corner was headed narrowly over the bar by Joseph O’Hara. The Blues high pressing game was forcing the West Belfast side to go long with their forward passes, and Ronan Maguire was marshalling the Blues defence to deal with these. Marco Smyth and Caitlin Kelly were combining well in midfield resulting in Smyth getting a shot off which was deflected wide.

From the resultant corner, Joseph O’Hara headed the ball into the Anderstown net, to open the scoring for Northend. The Blues began to play some good football, switching the ball out wide and winning a series of corners. Joseph O’Hara doubled his and Northend’s scoring from another Caitlin corner.

Northend were now seeing plenty of the ball and Kane McNeill found some space on the edge of the Anderstown box and fired home a third goal for Northend. Half time 3-0

Northend again started the second half strongly with Shea Scullion and Marco Smyth showing up strongly in midfield. It was Riley O’Hagan who got his 3rd goal in as many games, when he controlled an Oisin Gordon ball in and a placed the ball in the bottom corner to give the Blues a 4-goal lead.

The 5th goal came from Caitlin Kelly corner and an own goal and the 6th goal was scored by Cara McKay, following some good work from Oliver McBurney and Caitlin Kelly.The Blues final goal came from a Caitlin Kelly corner, which was flicked on by Shea Scullin to Cameron Smyth who chipped it over everyone in to the back of the net. Full time 7-0

Players of the Match: Caitlin Kelly and Joseph O’Hara

Panel: L Hardy, R Maguire, J O’Hara, C Kelly, M Smyth, C McKay, O Gordon, C O’Neill, K McNeill, C Abernethy, S Quinn, O McBurney, R O’Hagan, C Smyth, S Scullin

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Northend United 7 Warrenpoint Town 4 Saturday 18th February 2023

The Northend U13s have been turning in some impressive performances in recent weeks and added to this with a top display against Warrenpoint Town. Manager Ryan Magee is now starting to see the benefits of a settled side and saw his Blues team race into a healthy half time lead. Half time 7-1

Into the second half and Northend came up against a more resolute Warrenpoint performance who pulled a number of goals back as Northend played with their formation. Full time 7-4

Panel: L Hardy, R Maguire, J O’Hara, M Smyth, C McKay, O Gordon, C O’Neill, K McNeill, R O’Hagan, C Kelly, S Quinn, C Abernethy, C Smyth

Northend United 0 Crewe United 0 Saturday 11th February 2023

From the kick off, Northend worked hard to close the ball down, with Cara McKay in top form pressing the Crewe defence high and giving them no time on the ball. Riley O’Hagan was buzzing for the Blues and completed an excellent job man marking Crewe’s big number 7 who gave Northend a hard time the last time we played. With him not pulling the strings for Crewe, they found it hard to get the ball downfield and resulted in long balls. With Lughan Hardy, in the Blues nets, talking to his defence, they dealt comfortably with what Crewe could throw at them.

Northend were dominating the midfield play at this time and trying to pass the ball around, coming close to scoring on a number of occasions. Oliver McBurney had a good shot tipped over the bar and Marco Smyth had his shot deflected wide for a corner. Oisin Gordon saw a good shot well saved by the Crewe keeper on the stroke of half time. Half time 0-0

Northend started the second half in the same manner as they finished the first half, pressing from the front. Crewe had a few good chances, when they changed their team formation, however Riley O’Hagan was alert to the changes, covering the ground to put in the tackles when they were necessary. Through his tenacious play, Riley won us a corner and when Kane McNeill floated in a lovely ball, Oliver McBurney got injured and had to be substituted. This gave Cameron Smyth the chance up front, who had plenty of the ball, and looked for a pass every time he got the ball. We had more chances with Cara McKay coming close and Callum Abernethy getting some shots on target but it wasn’t to be but this was a really strong performance. Full time 0-0

Player of the Match: Riley O’Hagan

Panel: L Hardy, O McBurney, R Maguire, J O’Hara, M Smyth, C McKay, O Gordon, C O’Neill, K McNeill, R O’Hagan, C Abernethy, C Smyth, C Kelly, S Quinn

Northend United 6 Newcastle 0 Saturday 4th February 2023

Northend started the game on the front foot with Callum Abernathy having a shot at goal in the first couple of seconds. This is something the team have been working on and today it played off. The Blues had lots of possession in the early stages with players looking off the pass and moving forward as a team. Cara McKay and Callum Abernathy lined up well and this resulted in a free kick and Joseph O’Hara stepping up for the second week in a row to put the ball in the top corner of the net with the Newcastle keeper doing well to get a hand on it. 1-0

The next goal came from a similar bit of link up play this time Caitlin Kelly played Callum Abernathy through and his shot from 25 yards bent into the bottom corner 2-0

At this point, Northend went for it and it was attack after attack. The Blues added a third when we won the ball in the middle of the park, then played it out wide for Kane McNeill to beat his man the pass to Cara McKay who held it up for the overlap and slid it into Kane who smashed it past the keeper from close range. Half time 3-0

The Blues made a few changes at half time and started the second half on the back foot. The match got bogged down in midfield with both teams giving away free kicks but for the most the referee let the game flow, which suited the Blues. Newcastle thought they had a free kick at the edge of their box but Riley O’Hagan took advantage of every one stopping and fired it into the net 4-0

With some strong attacking play, Kane McNeill went over in the box but the referee was up with play and waived play on. This allowed Newcastle to break quickly and to give Lughan Hardy a chance to show his impressive shot stopping ability when he deflected the ball for a Newcastle corner. Northend kept three up on two for the corner. Lughan grabbed it out of the air and threw it straight out to Oisin Gordon and he went past his marker to allow him one on one with the keeper where he coolly passed it into the net 5-0

The last goal was scored when we won it in midfield with some good work from Marco Smyth and Caitlin Kelly and when Caitlin played the ball wide to Oisin Gordon she bombed forward to collect the ball and bend it round three Newcastle players into the back of the net 6-0

The last 10 minutes were end to end play with both Joseph O’Hara and Ronan Maguire in excellent form in defence calling every offside. Joseph’s distribution from the back was excellent. In the last minute of the match, Newcastle got a corner and they sent their keeper up for it. Cara McKay stayed up top for the Blues and when Northend won the ball, Joseph drilled the ball up the pitch to Cara but she went to early she put it in the back of the net but the referee blew for offside. A very good result for the steadily improving Blues. Full time 6-0

Player of the Match: Joseph O’Hara

Panel: L Hardy, R Maguire, J O’Hara, C Smyth, S Scullin, M Smyth, O Gordon, C O’Neill, K McNeill, C Abernethy, C McKay, C Kelly, S Quinn, R O’Hagan

Northend United 1 Crewe United 3 Saturday 28th January 2023

Another tough game for the Blues this week against Crewe United but a match where they will feel disappointed by not getting a share of the points. Crewe raced to a 1-0 lead in the first half which they held to half time. Half time 0-1

Into the second half and Joseph O’Hara was on target for Northend with a well taken goal before Crewe added another 2 goals to leave the final score 1-3 in Crewe’s favour. Full time 1-3

Panel: L Hardy, R Maguire, J O’Hara, C Smyth, M Smyth, S Scullin, C McKay, O Gordon, C O’Neill, K McNeill, C Abernethy, C Kelly

Northend United 4 Newcastle 2 Saturday 14th January 2023

From the outset Northend were on the front foot with chances down both flanks. The first ten minutes were defenders against attackers. Newcastle had a chance to attack but with Lughan Hardy in charge at the back it was in safe hands. Northend broke the deadlock with a nice bit of work from midfield when a shot was not cleared and Caitlin Kelly placed it into the Newcastle net. 1-0

This gave Northend something to bind off and attempts were made by everyone in midfield and forward line, the best of which was from Shea Scullin with a nice volley from 30 yards but into the keeper’s hands. Newcastle pulled level when a mix-up between the Blues defence and keeper allowed Newcastle the opportunity to score in an open net. 1-1

The Blues got stuck in and after some good work down the right, Kane McNeil had a shot from the edge of the box which the keeper couldn’t hold and Oisin Gordon was there to take advantage 2-1.

Newcastle got a second goal just before half time with a through pass that looked offside but wasn’t picked up by the referee, allowdwas off by a couple feet but ref didn’t it that way and if that wasn’t of the non-existent pass come shoot was as the Newcastle player was at the back post ahead of everyone to tap it in. Half time 2-2

We started the second half with a chance bring off Riley O’Hagan and putting on Callum Abernathy. This had almost instant effect with Callum Abernathy first touch being a shot on goal. The pressure was building down the wings and Kane McNeil going past two defenders and firing a shot into the back of the net from distance. 3-2

After that it got a bit messy with tackling and frees awards to us around the half way we played them down the wing and had some good moments but keeper was strong. Oisin Gordon scored a second goal with a powerful shot from the edge of the box it was after the best bit of football in the game we went down the left then switch to the right then pulled back to the edge 4-2 Full time 4-2

Player of the Match: Oisin Gordon

Panel: L Hardy, R Maguire, J O’Hara, S Scullin, C Kelly, M Smyth, C McKay, O Gordon, C O’Neill, K McNeill, R O’Hagan, C Abernethy, C Smyth, S Quinn

Northend United 0 Lisburn Distillery 3 Saturday 7th January 2023

Northend’s first game in 5 weeks showed with a rusty performance against Lisburn Distillery. The Blues conceded two long ball goals midway through the 2nd half , before a last minute mix-up in the Blues defence led to Distillery scoring a third goal. Full time 0-3

Panel: L Hardy, O McBurney, R Maguire, J O’Hara, C Smyth, M Smyth, O Gordon, C O’Neill, K McNeill, C Abernethy, E Meija