Down hit ground running with win in Sussex Cup

Down hit ground running with win in Sussex Cup

18 September 2013

THE new hockey season is off and running and while this Sussex Cup clash was something of a slow burner at the start, it soon livened up, producing an incredible eight goals.

Malone Park was bathed in late summer sunshine, with the home side leading 5-1 with just two minutes to go before the visitors staged a late rally to score a brace to make it 5-3.

With just seven teams in Senior Two this season the Ulster Branch has decided that the Sussex and Linden cup competitions will be played before any league games are played. Despite this, the scheduled league programme will be finished by the first week in February.

Local teams face the prospect of a really short season and players will be making the most of what will be a limited season. That was the case last weekend when Down and Parkview locked horns.

The visitors played well and had it not been for home ‘keeper Jeremy McCready and some woeful finishing, Parkview could have scored more than three goals.

Down’s Philip Brown almost created the first chance for the visitors when he gave the ball away, but James Erskine was in the right place at the right time to clear the danger. Minutes later Liam Kearney cleared a dangerous Parkview raid down the right flank.

Andy McCarey should have fired Parkview ahead in the fifth minute but his ferocious shot was kept out by McCready, while at the other end Mark Elliott was denied a scoring opportunity by an alert defender.

While it was the first competitive game of the season for both sides it didn’t show. Gavin Ringland’s raking pass across the Parkview penalty area evaded his forwards before Down were awarded five consecutive short corners, taking the lead from the last of these when that man Ringland found the bottom corner with a precise finish.

Christ Taylor increased Down’s lead with a scintillating finish, but Parkview were threatening and striker John Young pulled a goal back in the 20th minute with one of his trademark finishes on the reverse.

Young then won his side a short corner in the closing action of the first half and when the ball came to James Glover he somehow managed to fire his shot wide with the goal at his mercy.

Young’s short corner strike at the start of the second half was blocked by McCready with the rebound hammered against the base of the post by McCauley before the ball rebounded to safety.

A powerful Elliott run then almost picked out Taylor unmarked in the Parkview penalty area before the same pair combined with Taylor’s shot saved by the ‘keeper.

Kearney had a chance to score his first senior goal for the club in the 51st minute but he couldn’t get enough weight behind his shot before Elliott proved what a superb reader of the game he is.

He ghosted between a defender and the ‘keeper to deflect the ball into the net from William Fryer’s cross.

And with nine minutes to go Taylor grabbed his second of the day when his miss-hit shot from a short corner bobbled into the net.

Down’s Mark Graham was denied in the 30th minute but two minutes later he turned goal provider with the goal-of-the-game. Graham fed Ringland who picked out Elliott for his second goal of the game.

That should have been that, but in the final minute John Boyd made it 5-2 when he was given too much time in the penalty area and then the same player scored in added time following a goalmouth scramble to make it 5-3.

Down 5

Parkview 3

SUSSEX REGIMENT CUP