Report by Sam Johnston
Larne Ladies maintained momentum in their promotion push with a crucial 3-1 victory over Ballymacash Young Ladies, at Inver Park on Friday night.
The home side got us underway for what was a very eventful match and it didn’t take long for Larne to take the lead. Georgia Crawford struck low and hard just inside the box on 17 minutes, to give the Inver ladies an early 1-0 lead against a very talented Ballymacash.
Fifteen minutes later, Larne grabbed their second. Helen Curneen was fouled on the edge of the box, and she stepped up to take the free-kick, slotting it home to double their lead to 2-0.
Ballymacash got the second half underway and grabbed a goal through Rebecca Cargill. She outpaced the Larne defence and tapped the ball past Shannon Rea to score via the post.
However, Larne restored their two goal cushion as Georgia Crawford grabbed her second of the match. The Ballymcash keeper Danielle Petrie could only clear the ball as far as Georgia, and she took the chance to smash it past the keep to regain Larne’s two goal lead.
That was the last meaningful action of a very eventful match, with the player of the match award going to Ashton Hunter, for superb play on and off the ball.
Meanwhile, on Thursday evening Larne Olympic fell to a 4-2 at home to Camlough.
Larne opened the scoring 11 minutes in, when Mollie McAllister won the ball at the back before playing in Laura Noble, who slotted the ball home to give Larne the 1-0 lead.
On the stroke of half-time a very young Camlough side equalized through Olivia Connolly. It was very unexpected as Larne where dominating the game but Camlough skipper Adele Harte won possession in the midfield and found Connolly on the edge of the box, and she calmly slotted the ball past Lauren McGucken.
It didn’t take long for Camlough to find their second and once again it was through Olivia Connolly. Her low driven shot finds the bottom corner of the net to give Camlough the lead.
Camlough got their third when Connolly’s shot from six yards out went in off the post, to complete her hat-trick.
It didn’t take Camlough long to find their fourth as skipper Adele Harte found the back of the net from distance. However, Larne did get a consolation goal late on by Jessica McVeigh through Laura Aicken’s corner.
Player of the match for the home side was awarded to Laura Aicken.
