Mallards denied at the death

Dungannon U16s 4 Ballinamallard U16s 3

These two teams played out a thrilling spectacle at Stangmore Park on Saturday morning with some quality football on show.

The home side adapted comfortably to the icy conditions in the opening exchanges and netted with just three minutes on the clock. Ex-mallard Calum Hunter made good progress down the left to tee up the opener.

The Mallards couldn’t quite find a rhythm in the first half and were restricted to long range efforts.

The advantage was then doubled mid way through the first period with Hunter again proving to be a menace for his old team mates and scoring with another close range tap in.

The third goal was going to be critical and fortunately it fell the way of the Fermanagh boys when Captain Dylan Donnelly headed in a Odhran Mcgovern corner.

The Ducks upped their game after that and an early equaliser set the tone with Dan O’connor beating two players before crossing for Sean Corry to strike into the net.

And the Blues edged themselves in front with 10 minutes remaining. Jamie Edwards won the ball back and fed Corry down the right and he in turn slipped the ball to O’connor who provided a classy finish.

Indeed they almost moved further ahead minutes later with O’connor and Corry combining again but the latter couldn’t quite get close enough to make it count. From that forage forward the Swifts went on the counter attack to score their third and draw level with five minutes left to play.

With three minutes left of normal time the killer blow came with a corner headed in, agonisingly out of the reach of goalkeeper James Mills as Dungannon claimed the spoils.