The Old Campbellian Society

As ever, this was a hard fought encounter.

Campbellians saw most of the ball in the opening moments; and on 14 minutes, Adam Campbell bagged his first of the day, with a peachy strike from the edge of the circle.

But the visitors fought back, and almost immediately won a penalty corner. This was initially well dealt with by Campbellians. But some atrocious defending followed, which left a Portrush forward totally unmarked on the edge of the circle. He simply received the ball, and blasted it unchallenged into the roof of the net. All square on 21 minutes.

Campbellians piled on the pressure, and won a succession of penalty corners; however yet again, the  home routines failed to trouble the opposition keeper.

The second period was more of the same. Both sides attacked; but 15 minutes in Conor Bannister (whose commitment all afternoon placed him a very close second in the Man Of The Match stakes) went on a dazzling run to the left of the visitors circle, and zapped the ball goalwards, providing Adam Campbell with a glorious poacher's deflection to give Campbellians the lead.

Portrush refused to give up, and strung together some effective attacks through the midfield. A penalty corner followed, and Pete Gray pulled off a contender for the save of the season with a diving stick stop low to his right.

Strange then, that moments later he was easily beaten at the far post by an fairly average shot from the edge of the circle. Two all, and game on again.

For the final 12 minutes of the game, Campbellians pressed with attack after attack. Another series of penalty corners failed to hand the home side the advantage as the clock ticked inexorably by. However there was at least an inkling that the Portrush defence could not hold out forever, and that something would have to give.

And give it did. With under 2 minutes on the clock Campbellians were awarded a penalty stroke. Somehow Adam Campbell managed to keep his composure as the Portrush players berated the umpire, and finally put the ball out of Trevor Kirkpatrick's reach into the top right hand corner of the net.

Campbellians battened down the hatches for the remaing 45 seconds, and kept their title hopes alive.

Full marks to the Portrush 1stX1 for travelling to Belfast for this fixture.

The visitors had been devasted by the tragic and untimely death of 26 year old team mate Ciaran McGinn just days before Easter. Both squads observed a minute's silence as a mark of respect before the match.

The Campbellians club extends utmost sympathy to the McGinn family, and everyone at Portrush Hockey Club, at such a difficult time.