Lisbellaw United 5 Clonard 0

A Scott Moutray brace aided Lisbellaw in their 5-0 demolition of Belfast-based Clonard in the Junior Cup on Saturday.

Player/manager Kyle McCleery was left pleased with his side’s performance on Saturday: “I have to give Clonard credit, they worked hard and got a lot of bodies behind the ball, but I felt we were always reasonably comfortable in the game. We’ve scored five goals, kept a clean sheet and we are in the hat for the second round, we can’t ask for more than that.”

Lisbellaw threatened early as they took a foothold in the game at Drumad and they took the lead around the 20 minute mark as Sam Lindsay went on a driving run and fired towards goal but Clonard goalkeeper Sean Paul Thompson parried the effort into the path of Scott Moutray who made no mistake from the edge of the box when he found the bottom corner.

Lisbellaw pushed to find a second and dominated possession but were unable to break the visitor’s defence as they had chances missed by Sam Lindsay, Ryan Lindsay, Jack Foster and McCleery who was making his first start in over five years following a long-term injury sustained in 2018.

It took until the very end of the half for the home side to get their second as a flowing passage of play down the left-hand side of the park led to Craig Johnston delivering a low cross into Scott Johnston to finish and double his side’s advantage.

Moutray bagged his second on the hour mark as Sam Lindsay threaded through a well-weighted pass for Moutray to apply the finishing touch to make it 3-0 and put the home team in cruise control.

With 15 minutes remaining Sam Lindsay was rewarded for his afternoon’s work when McCleery stripped a Clonard defender off the ball and played in Lindsay who skipped past his man and drilled a low shot into the bottom corner.

Substitute Curtis Coalter rounded off the scoring as his right-footed shot from 20 yards out took a deflection off a Clonard man and left goalkeeper Thompson with no chance.

Lisbellaw will now look ahead to the second round of the cup, but they will return to Mercer League action on Saturday as they face a tough test at home to Enniskillen Rangers. McCleery’s side will be hoping to pick up their second win in three league games.