Game Review: Carrickfergus Knights vs Craigavon Cowboys

The Craigavon Cowboys welcomed the Carrickfegus Knights to Chambers Park last Sunday in their 2015 season opener. The game drew a big crowd as the Cowboys also organised a Family Fun Day as part of the fixture.

Cowboys Defence getting ready for another Knights attack
Photo by Ariane Photography

The visitors came out of the blocks flying, scoring on their opening drive and again soon after to take a 13-0 lead. After a long injury delay, the Cowboys gathered themselves on both sides of the ball and saw their hard work pay off when Peter Loughran crept the ball over the line behind some great Offensive Line blocking. The failed conversion saw the game reach the half at 13-6 in the Knights’ favour.

The second half started the same as the first with the Knights dominating early with a touchdown. Once again the home side were on the back foot but managed to claw their way back into the game with Running Back Carlos Delgado scoring the touchdown of the day after a 62 yard run. Carlos broke a tackle out wide then showed terrific pace to speed past the secondary defence before running into the End Zone.

After some stuttering from the Cowboys’ Offence, the Knights crawled back into the game again through a controversial touchdown that the Cowboys protested over but to no avail. It was a disappointing day for the Cowboys with some harsh lessons learnt, but they have chance to rectify any issues before they travel to face the Dublin Rebels on the 12th April.

Cowboy’s Head Coach Greg Loughran commented on the game, “We made some key mistakes at crucial times in the game and they made us pay. They are a very well organised team and we came away with heavy hearts as we felt we didn’t do ourselves justice. We will learn from this and come back stronger”.

Although the Cowboys were unhappy with their on-field performance, off the field the Family Fun Day was a resounding success. Over 400 visitors attended the event and lent plenty of noise, colour and atmosphere to the event and a great day was had by all.

Photo by Ariane Photography

Thanks to the Cowboys for the game report and Arianne Photography for the photos