Exciting games galore in the latest Newry City AFC Academy Round-up

Newry City AFC U9 had a very competitive encounter against Valley Rangers on Saturday. Teamwork and resilience were evident from start to finish with lots of good football played by both sides. Newry’s goals came from Danny King, Zachary McCormack, Darragh O'Neill and Cayden McSherry.

Newry City AFC U11 v Camlough Rovers 2014

A fantastic game of football saw a 3-3 draw between two good teams. The game started evenly but Camlough went two goals up courtesy of two long-range shots. Newry kept their chins up to pull a goal back before half-time with a well worked goal from Karol Oleszczuk.

Newry started the second half really well and were the more dominant team throughout but whilst creating a lot of chances, they couldn't find the net. That was until Rhys Hempkin broke free on the left and hit a screamer into the far corner.

Newry kept pressing for a winner but Camlough scored very late with a contested corner. Newry didn't give up and with the last move of the match, up stepped Deaglàn Finnegan to score with a long range shot. There were great scenes at the end of a great game of football.

Man of the match - Karol Oleszczuk

Newry City: Rory O'Hagan (GK), Max McKeown, Rio Carroll, Daniel Drumm, Noah Kearns, Daìthì Gorman, Karol Oleszczuk, Reuben Bentley-McKevitt, Deaglàn Finnegan, Rhys Hempkin, Harry Owens, Lorcan Haughey.

Newry City AFC U15 v Glendowan U15

Newry got off to the better start with Tomas Devlin once again getting on the end of a Mathieu Kavanagh free kick to open the scoring. As the first half progressed Newry were on top with Eoin, Mathieu and Ross all covering a lot of ground in the middle of the pitch.

The back three consisting of Frankie, Tomas and Darragh patrolled the defence really well, as the game progressed Jamie Franks and Ronan McCann grew into it creating great chances for the two forwards. Lee Clarke sacrificed himself to get on the end of a dead ball to slip it to Jacob Toner who put it away for Newry’s second goal.

With minutes left of the first half Ethan Kelly made three great consecutive saves to keep Newry on top, going into half-time the more dominant team. The second half started with Glendowan starting the stronger being rewarded soon after with a goal. Newry weathered the storm well and could have extended their lead but good goalkeeping from Glendowan and a post denied them.

Glendowan equalised with 10 minutes left on the clock after two quick saves from Kieran King unfortunately resulted in the ball landing to a Glendowan player to roll into the net. One final opportunity fell to Mikey Bannon who worked the keeper but Newry just couldn't get it over the line.

It was a great overall game and on another day the score line could have been more reflective of Newry’s work rate and opportunities. There were stand-out performances from Lee Clark and Eoin Taylor.

The final score was 2-2.

Newry City AFC U16 v Coleraine U16

In the first 10 minutes Coleraine took the lead, but Newry remained disciplined and made it difficult for Coleraine to break the team down, while the Newry forwards picked their moments to go and break.

However, unfortunately late on in the half Coleraine fully found their feet and took control finding the net twice before the half-time whistle before putting the game to bed early in the second half with their fourth goal.