Five star Garvey defeat Raphoe

Following their first defeat of the season at Banbridge Firsts, Garvey returned to winning form with a 5-0 win over newly promoted Raphoe at Comber Road last Saturday. With Mark Raphael back in the midfield engine room, Garvey began strongly and immediately put their opponents on the back foot and when they forced their first penalty corner in the 6th minute, Andy Williamson was on the spot to score from the rebounded drag flick. Johnny Rankin, in the Raphoe goal was to be the busiest man on the pitch for most of the 70 minutes but he could do nothing in the 9th minute when having made a save from Williamson, Johnny Quigley scored with a fine shot from an angle on the right of the circle. Garvey’s second penalty corner was saved in the 12th minute while Raphoe saw their first telling raid end with the shot going high over the cross bar. While a minute later Timmy Cockram also saw his reverse stick shot go wide of the target. Jason Lynch, having stripped the Raphoe defence in the 22nd minute, might well have passed instead of shooting while Cockram had another fine reverse shot saved by the excellent Rankin in the Raphoe net. A 3rd Garvey set piece in the 30th minute was deflected for a long corner while both Greg Thompson and Richard Arneill had chances to extend the Garvey lead which remained at 2-0 at the interval. Mark Raphael was gradually working his way into the game and he had a good shot parried by Rankin in the 36th minute and the Garvey pressure continued with two more penalty corners which again proved fruitless. The constant wave of attack on the Raphoe circle saw a Johnny Quigley shot deflected over the bar in the 44th minute while a 6th set piece was straight at Rankin and easily saved but the pressure had to tell and in the 45th minute, Peter MacDonnell added goal number three. Jason Lynch had done the damage with a telling run on the left before MacDonnell provided the finishing touch. Garvey captain, Johnny Bell had a snap shot from the edge of the circle, saved by Rankin in the 55th minute while a 7th penalty corner was again saved without much difficulty by the goalkeeper. Garvey’s set pieces continued to cause concern when three more efforts went unrewarded taking their tally to eleven before after Peter MacDonnell shot was blocked Garvey’s 12th penalty corner was al last converted by Timmy Cockram; his drag flick proving too fast for Rankin in the 68th minute and in the last minute of the game he again beat Rankin with a well directed shot from the 13th and final set piece of the match. The final 5-0 score line was probably reflective of the Garvey dominance with the visitors never threatening to dent the solid Garvey defence. The team now move on to their next league match which is Mossley at The Glade this Friday at 8.15p.m. Garvey have had difficulty with this fixture in the past and Mossley have started the season well enough to give their visitors something to think about but Garvey should be too strong and the three points should be secured.