Home Defeat

WOMEN’S manager Alison Nicholl is hoping that she can get more players back at her disposal after last night’s 3-0 defeat to Comber Rec…

The Bannsiders would lose out in the NIFWA Championship clash as a combination of exams and injuries meant the Women’s team were down in numbers.

Despite going into the game looking to pick up their first points of the campaign, Nicholl’s squad would leave empty handed against their counterparts.

“We are very depleted at the minute due to injuries and exams,” Nicholl said.

“We need a better strength and depth of squad. We look forward to some of the academy players eventually coming through.

“Last night we had Charlotte, Chelsea, Chloe and Lizzy out injured. Leah was unwell and unable to play, which meant we were without five starting players.

“The game started reasonably well, the two teams were evenly matched but then Comber started to dominate. We were sitting in too deep and several players were playing out of position.

“Lauren Quinn then had to go off injured ten minutes into the game who was playing wide left so we had to reshuffle again, with Darian McVicker coming onto replace.

“Our goalkeeper Hayley made a number of decent saves before they broke through just before the end of the first-half to score.

“The second-half started brightly for us but then they split the defence with a through ball to give Hayley no chance from close range.

“In truth, our heads then went down and to be honest we really didn’t test their keeper. Their third goal came ten minutes from the end to leave the scoreline 3-0.

“Hayley again pulled off a number of good saves in the second half again when the score line was 1-0 to keep us in it, she was our man of the match.

“I am disappointed to lose the game as it was one we had targeted to get some points from but with exams and a number of injuries our squad was very depleted.”