Raphoe relegated after battling performance against Mossley

Raphoe Men's first team travelled to Mossley, Newtownabbey, on Saturday needing a win to stay in the Premier League.

Mossley 4
Raphoe 2

Mossley, who currently sit top of the group showed their class in the first quarter, taking a 3-0 advantage. They kept the heads up to compete with strong opposition clawing a goal back in the second quarter. A stunning Simon Goudie drag flick after the initial penalty corner was superbly won by Jake Watt.

Into the third quarter and Raphoe started to dominate, grabbing another superb goal, this time a rare goal from Lee Stewart, Stewart controlled the ball at waist height before rivalling it past the helpless Mossley keeper, his second goal of the season. 

Raphoe then thought they had equalised in the fourth quarter through Jack Pearson only for the umpire to bizarrely rule it out for a foul minutes earlier. 

Mossley defended well in the final quarter, wasting time when possible, Raphoe gambled with a two man defence for the final minutes of the game but despite efforts from the Raphoe attack they couldn’t find those all important goals. Mossley then scored a fourth at the death, meaning Raphoe are now relegated and will play in the intermediate league next season after many years spent with the elite, in the Ulster Premier League.

The team have a promising future ahead with many young players having debuted for the team throughout the season, even on Saturday, as promising goalkeeper, Jay Moore, above, at the young age of only 16 made his debut for the first team and debut in the Ulster Premier League.