Enniskillen Athletic 4 Killen Rangers 2

Enniskillen Athletic continued their unbeaten start to 2023 with a 4-2 victory over relegation rivals Killen Rangers at the Lakeland Forum.

The win pushes Athletic eight points ahead of the Tyrone side but the latter have three games in hand and still remain one point outside of the drop zone.

There wasn’t much to separate either side in the opening 20 minutes of Saturday’s affair, but an error at the back handed the home side a 1-0 lead.

An empty net

Caoilte Hamill’s ball in behind was spilt by the Killen goalkeeper to allow Phillip Leonard to take one touch before finishing into an empty net.

Athletic doubled their lead shortly after when Glenn Treacy floated in a corner to the back post, and John Reihill sprung above his man to power home a header to make it 2-0.

Despite the deficit, Killen were able to string some good attacking moves and they forced a good save from goalkeeper James Maguire.

And the away side’s bright play led to a goal before half time as a loose ball in the box was poked home by Jordan Orr to bring it back to one between the sides.

However, Athletic replied instantly with a goal-of-the-season contender.

Conor Love was fouled 30 yards from goal, and he stepped up to strike the ball in off the crossbar from distance to restore his side’s two-goal lead to leave the score at 3-1 at half time.

Athletic were eager to add another in the second half in what could prove to be a vital win in their efforts to stay in Division One, and Glenn Treacy provided the fourth before the hour mark as Jake Smith’s free-kick was parried and Love reacted quickest to drill the ball across the goal for Treacy to tap into the net.

Killen continued to fight, and Gareth Milligan finished off a well-worked attack to make it 4-2, and the visitors went close to adding a third on a couple of occasions late on, but Athletic held on to secure back-to-back wins.

Enniskillen Athletic Manager Darren Rodgers said after the game: “Happy with the result, as it was a big game for us and it’s good to be scoring freely. It’s Tummery this week which is always a good game.

“Unfortunately, they seem to be a bogey team for us as we always give them a high-scoring game, but seem to always lose by the odd goal.”