Under 20B Football Championship Preliminary round

St Patrick’s Lisburn 1-11 St Mary’s Rasharkin 1-4

St Patrick’s Lisburn won their way through to the first round proper of the Antrim Under 20B championship when they beat Rasharkin in Friday evening’s preliminary round at Kirkwood Park. Trailing by two points in the early stages after a Rasharkin goal the Lisburn side turned it around to lead by 0-8 to 1-1 at the break and despite not scoring for the last 24 minutes of the match they held off a last quarter comeback by the visitors to win by seven in the end.

Rasharkin midfielder Oran McMullan got his team off to a great start with a point inside 30 second, but Lisburn senior star Eoin Dixon brought the home side level five minutes later. Corner forward Rudi Smyth edged St Patrick’s ahead two minutes later with a point but on 11 minutes the visitors got back ahead centre forward when Oisin Casey fired home a penalty.

That was as good as it got for the remainder of the first half for the St Mary’s side as the Lisburn side took control. Rudi Smyth cut the gap back to a point before two in a row from right half back Oisin Gorman put his team back in front. Eoin Dixon put them two ahead on 25 minutes before Ruadhan McKenna added one from a 45 and Dixon struck again just on half time to give his side a 0-8 to 1-1 lead at the break.

St Patrick’s started the second half as they finished the first with Dixon firing over, Adam Patterson added another before right half back Anton Beattie fired the ball to the Rasharkin net. The gap was now out to ten points, but remarkably the home side never scored again for the remainder of the game, despite a good few chances. Rasharkin came back with three points of their own, with Coramac McMullan and James Higgins hitting the target, but they could never really threaten the St Patrick’s lead and as the Lisburn side eased through to the first round proper.