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Under 14s Secure Place in Semis A narrow win 1-0 was enough to secure the semi-final berth for the Magherafelt High boys with Jason Ritchie securing the points and the win in an workmanlike performance by the Magherafelt High school boys. Playing against a team containing five first year students, you could have been forgiven for thinking a thrashing was on the cards. Indeed even the Magherafelt High School coach got caught up in the pre-match hype eplaining to the Garvagh coach/referee that in the event of the scoreline being embarassing for the young Garvagh lads, he would have no problem with allowing the game to be blown up early. Chickens and hatching spring to mind! The Garvagh lads started the game with zeal and rattled their much bigger opposition. It wasn't long however to the Magherafelt lads found their groove and started controlling the midfield. Conor 'Gerrard' Stewart made some fine attacking runs through midfield while Michael Scott stole the show on the left-wing with some fancy footwork and strong running leaving his Garvagh counterpart chasing shadows. Indeed were it not for the heroics of the Garvagh keeper, the scoreline could have been 3-0 by half-time. The team came out in the second half with renewed vigour and desperation to put right all that went wrong in the first half. With the Garvagh lads failing to trouble McIlhatton in goal, the defence, marshalled by McGrath, pushed up allowing the midfield some room to attack the Garvagh goal. It was just a matter of time, when the man with the 'adidas' touch, Ritchie (Jason) put the finishing touches to a finely crafted move, leaving the keeper stranded in the six-yard box. The Garvagh boys didn't roll over however and worked hard to try and get back into the match but strong defending from McGrath, Ritchie and Bradley working back from Midfield stopped any decent ball getting through to the strikers. Indeed the young Magherafelt keeper, (McIlhatton), was even given a 'trial' run out in Midfield to help keep him awake. His new found creative freedom however failed to stop his sudden bouts of narcolepsy and after a near-goal experience by Garvagh, he was promptly returned to his righful place between the Magherafelt sticks. The Magherafelt boys will have hopefully learned a lot from this game particularly not the pre-judge the opposition based on size alone. With the possibility of getting to their first final, the Magherafelt boys will need to be fitter and more clinical in front of goal. A team needs no more motivation than to know they have the potential to be the best and with one more game standing between them and the final, they must reliase this realise this potential! Mr Martin [16th October 2008] | |||||||||||||||