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Sunday 02 Apr 2017
U18 Schoolboys beat Scots 2-1 in Centenary Shield

The Northern Ireland U18 Schoolboys put on a late show in front of the home crowd to earn their second win of the Centenary Shield campaign on Friday.

The team fell behind from an early second half goal but two goals in the last five minutes were enough to keep their hopes of winning the shield alive.

Frankie Wilson's team were second best for most of the first half against a strong Scottish side with Matthew Reilly, Ciaran Dunne and Euan O’Reilly all looking dangerous for the visitors. 

Then Northern Ireland's Niall Owens appeared to be taken down in the penalty area, however the referee pointed for a goal kick.

Scotland went ahead early in the second half when a driving run by Ciaran Dunne split the Northern Ireland defence and a perfect pass put Adam Brown through on goal to slot the ball past Conor Larkin.

Northern Ireland pressed for an equaliser straight away with Niall Owens driving to the by-line. He pulled the ball back to Daniel Reynolds whose effort was well saved by Ronan Fallens. 

Northern Ireland continued to threaten. Owens sent another dangerous cross into the box for Reynolds who controlled the ball and got his shot away, however Fallens was there again with a fantastic save.

Eoin Toal was the next to try his luck, getting his head onto a Bobby Burns overhead kick but he couldn’t direct his effort on target.

The breakthrough for Northern Ireland finally came with two minutes of normal time remaining. Another teasing ball from Owens wasn’t cleared by the defenders and Ryan Strain was on hand to blast the ball into the bottom corner.

From the resulting Scotland kick-off Northern Ireland won the ball and played it wide to Jack O’Mahony whose cross caused confusion between the Scottish defence and goalkeeper and Northern Ireland substitute Fra Nolan nipped in to score with a neatly executed overhead kick. 

Northern Ireland team: Conor Larkin, Caolin Coyle, Eoin Toal, Christopher Crane, Aaron Donnelly, Eamon Scannell, Lorcan Forde, Niall Owens, Bobby Burns, Daniel Reynolds, Ryan Strain.