Two wins for Mallard Youth teams

BALLINAMALLARD closed the gap on second place in the U15 Subway NIBFA National League with 4-0 win over Ballymoney.

Three goals before halftime from Joshua Humes, Oliver Robertson and Jay Largo-elis sent the travelling side into a comfortable position with Jack Fulton adding a fourth late on to wrap up another impressive victory on the road. It didn’t take long for the Mallards to find the opener as Largo-elis lifted his head in the final third and spotted Humes in a yard of space with the forward turning and finding the bottom corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.

Good pressing on the Ballymoney defence saw Robertson rob his man of the ball and then apply a low finish under the opposition goalkeeper to make it 2-0.

A third goal then did arrive before halftime with Largo-elis picking up the ball before gliding past three defenders and finding the bottom corner just inside the box to put the Mallards in complete control.

John Ritchie’s ball in behind the back four allowed Fulton to run through and slip the ball under the oncoming goalkeeper for 4-0 and wrap up another win in the National League.

BALLINAMALLARD trailed 5-1 at halftime in their National Youth League tie with Ridgeway Rovers before netting nine unanswered goals, in the second half, to record a 10-5 win.

The Belfast side took the lead with a strike from range with a second goal coming shortly.

However, they did pull one back as Jay Ely beat a couple of men with some nice dribbling before placing the ball into the bottom corner of the Ridgeway net. Rovers scored three more goals before the break to take a 5-1 lead in at halftime.

Three goals each from Tim Armstrong and Kacper Ferens added to another two from Ely as all three players recorded hat-tricks with Cathair Maguire adding the other goal.

Ferens nabbed the pick of the goals with a bullet header from a Kimi Thompson corner.