Gritty Glenmuir take spoils from the basement battle

GLENMUIR secured an important battling first win of the league campaign in this bottom of the table clash which lifted them off the final rung for Kells to slip onto it.

Crucially with two matches to play against Ballyjamesduff and Chord, who also fill places at the lower end of the table, they have it in their hands to avoid relegation from the third division.

They showed great character to fight back after falling behind three times, with new signing Mark McGeown quickly making his mark, scoring on his debut on Friday night at Glenmuir Park.

The visitors took the lead inside the first ten minutes, but less than five minutes later Danny Mullen equalised when played in by Conall McArdle.

Kells regained the lead as little as eight seconds later, cashing in on a mix-up in the home defence.

Defender Edgar Bitanis made it level pegging on 20 minutes when he stole in behind the visitors defence and latched onto a long free-kick by goalkeeper Dave McKenny from the edge of the home box and controlled the ball and shot to the net.

That was how the score stood at the break, but once more Kells went ahead with a fine goal ten minutes into the second-half.

McGeown cancelled out that goal on the hour, getting on the end of a good move involving Danny Mullen and Sean Bailey to fire home from the corner of the six yard box.

Bailey then scored the decisive goal with about 20 minutes left when he ghosted in between the Kells goalkeeper and centre -half and collected a cross by substitute Mark Molloy from the left to lob the ball to the net.

GLENMUIR: DAVIE MCKENNY, LIAM MCKENNY, WILLIE KELLY, COLM MATTHEWS ( MARK MOLLOY 70) EDGAR BITANIS, MARK MCGEOWN, CONALL MCARDLE (ASHRAF 80), DAVID O’DONOVAN, SEAN BAILEY, LIAM CUNNINGHAM (RONAN MOLLOY 60), DANIEL MULLEN.