Ballymacash finish the month off strong

Ballymacash Rangers saw off Laurelvale on Saturday to continue their fine start to the Mid Ulster Intermediate A league season.

The Lisburn men headed into the league fixture with Laurelvale as favourites on paper, with the Portadown-based visitors finding points hard to come by in the opening months of the season.

Ballymacash were keen to start the game off in the right fashion, with a notable face in the crowd in the form of Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan, Forsythe’s men were keen to leave a good impression.

With only three minutes played Michael Moore headed a diagonal ball over the Laurelvale defence, which sat high all afternoon, and Chris Ferguson timed his run to perfection to beat the offside trap and finish calmly beyond the Laurelvale keeper. Ballymacash benefitted once again from the high line of their opponents, and after seven minutes it was Michael Moore who kept himself onside and powered a shot through the hands of the visiting keeper.

Laurelvale played some nice football and worked hard both on and off the ball, but rarely tested Ballymacash keeper Ryan Walsh. Michael Moore calmly headed home at the back post just after fifteen minutes to make it three nil, before Stuart Clarke continued his run of goals this season from midfield as he was the quickest to react following a smart save from the Laurelvale goalkeeper.

Ballymacash went into the half-time interval four goals to the good.

Moore would have been keen to secure the match ball and that he did, lobbing the goalkeeper superbly ten minutes into the second half in what would be the final action of his day.

Captain Jordan Morrison was able to take advantage of his teammates set piece delivery, grabbing himself two goals in the second half in what was an unusual brace for a centre back.

The second half was a low-key enough affair with Ballymacash scoring their eighth of the day in stoppage time, following excellent work from Cahoon and Dornan allowing Chris Trussell to finish into the bottom corner.

Best on the day for Ballymacash was indeed the hat-trick hero Moore, but credit must go to all the side who recorded yet another high-scoring victory at The Bluebell.

They now face a free week on 4th December before welcoming Richhill AFC to The Bluebell on 11th December at 2pm.