Irvinestown Wanderers 2 Killen Rangers 4

Irvinestown Wanderers remain in the relegation zone after a 4-2 home defeat to Killen Rangers.

Saturday’s defeat leaves them five points from safety with eight games remaining, with manager Darren Higginbotham acknowledging that they will have to improve if they are to retain their spot in Division One.

“We can’t stay in this league with performances like that,” admitted the manager.

“Saturday wasn’t good. It wasn’t the level I ever expect from us and one I certainly think will not be replicated again this season.

"We went into the game hoping to get points, but somewhere between preparation and execution we lost it.

"We started well but missed two guilt-edged chances in the first 10 minutes. We lacked that bit of cutting edge throughout the game.

"We weren’t good enough at one end of the pitch, and we weren’t solid defensively, so all in all it was a disappointing day.

"Maybe if we had taken our early chances it would have been a different game, but we didn’t take them and we conceded a free kick 25 yards out which they scored from.

"That was probably the turning point.”

Irvinestown made light of their recent woes in the opening moments of the game as they went on the attack.

Jamie McFarlane’s pass set Barry Goodwin clear and he dinked the ball over the keeper, but Killen got back to hook the ball off the goal line.

Moments later Goodwin broke clear of the defence again. This time he rounded the keeper but pulled his shot wide of the post under pressure from a recovering defender.

Wanderers’ promising start was wiped out after 18 minutes however when Killen’s Graham Young fired a free kick from 25 yards in off the post to give the visitors the lead.

Eight minutes later they doubled their advantage when a corner was only partially cleared, and when Killen whipped the ball back into the area Stuart Duncan headed past Paul Murphy.

Duncan scored his second of the match early in the second half, but three minutes later Irvinestown pulled one back.

Good work down the right wing created space for Goodwin and he squared the ball for Stephen Sheridan who drilled a low shot from 12 yards into the bottom corner of the net.

Any chances of a comeback were short-lived, however.

Adam Milligan restored Killen’s three-goal lead, and although Daire Gallagher poked in Gary Maguires’ corner, Killen held on to claim all three points.

Next up for Wanderers is Enniskillen Town, and Higginbotham is hoping his side can produce an upset against the team lying in second spot in the league table.

“We need to respond,” he acknowledged. “We will approach the game with some belief and desire to cause an upset.

"It will be a tough game but there is no pressure on us in games like that. We have to believe that we can go and cause a shock.

"We have to approach the game correctly and give it a good rattle. We know we can give teams a game at this level, but it is the consistency that is probably killing us at the moment.

"We are creating plenty of chances for a team that is near the bottom of the league, and we have scored a fair few goals, but it is just about being clinical at one end and defensively solid at the other.

"We need to dust ourselves down quickly. We only have eight games left and we need to take every point we can.”