LARNE Ladies Olympic continued their preparation ahead of the new season with a 5-1 victory against Portadown Ladies 2nd’s on Wednesday night.
A tense opening for both teams saw most of the play in midfield, with both teams struggling to get a foothold in the game. Larne began to hit their stride after the opening 10 minutes. The Inver Women opened the scoring when Laura Aicken played a great diagonal ball behind the opposition defence and Jodi McCourt nipped in before the onrushing keeper to make it 1-0.
The second goal came shortly afterwards, Larne won the ball in the midfield and opened the play out to Christine Morton. The full back played a great ball down the channel for Laura Noble to run through and calmly slot the ball into the far corner. Larne had the momentum at that stage and came close once again, with Julie Haggan rattling the crossbar with a free kick from 25 yards.
Just before half time, Larne made it three as Christine Morton grabbed another assist. She played in Jodi McCourt who saw her shot across the keeper find the back of the net for her second of the game.
After the break, both teams came out looking to get a goal. A ball over the top of the Portadown defence saw their goalkeeper come rushing out to clear, but the ball fell to Aimee Shiels just inside the Portadown half and she produced a wonderful chip to make it 4-0.
Portadown, desperate to get a foothold in the game, began to put the pressure on. That pressure paid off as they got in behind the Larne defence to slide a ball across goal which was tapped home. Just as the Ports went in search of another goal to get back in the game Larne got their fifth. Connie Hodge stepped out of defence and played a pinpoint pass in to Laura Aicken who carried the ball into the box and finished well into the Portadown net.
It is only a week away now until the start of the new season for the Ladies with preparations going well so far and they were capped off with a strong team performance against Portadown.
