Augher Stars 2 Irvinestown Wanderers 4

Irvinestown Wanderers picked up three points on the road at Augher Stars last weekend as they continued their pursuit of a swift return to Division One.

The win leaves Wanderers ten clear at the top of the table, although they have played two games more than Castlederg United and Omagh Hospitals.

Irvinestown flew into a 3-0 lead in the opening 15 minutes with a brace from Gary Maguire.

They were awarded a free kick which was converted by Maguire in just the fourth minute as he curled the ball around the wall into the bottom left corner for an early lead.

The second goal came moments later when Caolan Ward, Sean Clear and Joey Millar combined for some neat build-up play on the right wing, which led to Ward cutting the ball across the box for the oncoming Maguire, who side-footed it into the roof of the net.

Christopher Lyons then pounced onto a pass back to the Augher goalkeeper and stayed calm to slot the ball into the bottom right corner for a 3-0 lead, which the away side carried into half time.

Augher responded well at the beginning of the second half, Christopher McKenna headed in a free kick from a wide position to pull one back for the home side.

With just over an hour played, referee Kevin Taggart deemed Wanderers defender Barry O’Sullivan to have handled the ball in the box, and McKenna stepped up to finish the subsequent penalty into the bottom-left corner.

There were chances for both sides with only a goal between the sides, Stars keeper Christopher Holland pulled off a couple of important saves.

However, Wanderers would not be denied a fourth goal to seal the win when a goalmouth scramble saw the ball fall for Danny Noble to poke into the net to make it 4-2 as his side held the ball for most of the remaining minutes, and saw the game out.

Irvinestown Manager Darren Higginbotham said he was “delighted to get the three points” following the win.

“Augher is one of the most difficult teams to go to in the league and the boys did fantastic to get the three points.

“They made things difficult for us, but on the day, I thought we were good for the win.

“The boys took their chances early on and overall, a positive day, so now it’s back to training with an important game against Enniskillen Galaxy which we will have to prepare for properly.”

With Wanderers home to Enniskillen Galaxy, Augher will be looking for an improved result when they travel to Orchard Farm on Saturday.