Banbridge bamboozled by barnstorming Bangor

With a full complement of teams taking to the field on Saturday, there was little scope for the coaches to rest any players in advance of next week’s challenge at Clonmel in the All Ireland Junior Cup. However, the few changes that were made were no strangers to the team and the overall make-up of the side looked comfortingly familiar.

Playing with a stiff breeze blowing straight down the pitch, Bangor kicked off towards a youthful Banbridge side. Within 5 minutes, a simple but well-executed move led to the first score. From a Bangor scrum on the right hand side of the pitch, Curtis Stewart at Number 8 picked up and passed to Jamie Ball at scrum half. From there, a couple of quick and well-timed passes from Ball to Mike Aspley and then to Mark Widdowson, found the winger in more space then he has been used to, providing a fairly easy run in to score in the left hand corner.

Although Bangor enjoyed long spells of possession in their opponent’s half, a mixture of solid defending and unforced errors combined to thwart a number of good scoring opportunities. Several stoppages for injury also contributed to a lack of fluency and momentum. After 14 minutes, Bangor finally stretched their lead to 0-8 with a penalty following a dangerous Banbridge tackle. Banbridge then replied within minutes with a penalty of their own, before another Neil Cuthbertson kick restored the lead by 3-11…….. see more at :- http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/bangorrfc/s/match-centre-35649/0-2702905 & for images CLICK HERE