Mountfield 1-4 Orchard Farm
Orchard Farm made a winning start to the season as debutant Brian McDermott netted a brace in Omagh on Saturday.
Tiarnan Elliot also netted a double as new managers Shane O’Donnell and Stephen Marron got off to a flying start.
Four brilliant goals set Farm on the way to an opening day win over Mountfield as they look towards making it two wins from two when they face Castlederg United next weekend.
It took just 13 minutes for McDermott to open his Orchard Farm goalscoring account as a ball in towards the box was taken down by the forward and he lifted his head and stuck it away into the top corner to make it 1-0.
Fergal McKenna had a chance to make it 2-0 when he was played through on goal but he couldn’t direct his effort on target.
Mountfield came back into the game with half chances for both sides in the first-half and there would be two late goals before halftime.
Mountfield’s Rian McCaul found the net with a well-executed free-kick 44 minutes in.
However, the Farm responded instantly when Scott Armstrong put the ball into the box and McDermott was there again to take the ball down with a good touch and apply a neat finish to make sure his side went into the changing rooms 2-1 up.
Ryan Hannigan came on for his Farm debut and almost netted a debut goal when he latched onto a dropping ball on the edge of the box and volleyed it off the outside of the post.
Elliot gave his side breathing room with 15 minutes to go when he smashed home an effort into the top corner from just under 30 yards out to make it 3-1.
Mountfield pushed forward in search of an equaliser as Michael McGrath made a couple of decent saves but nothing to greatly trouble another of Farm’s new summer additions.
Elliot rounded off the scoring late on when another shot from range trickled into the bottom corner. Speaking after the game, manager O’Donnell said: “Yeah it was very pleasing, a very good performance overall from us. The boys were excellent, Brian and Tiarnan Elliot.
"Next Saturday is going to be a big one at home to Castlederg. We’ll see what way some of the lads are, there’s a chance we might have more men to come in but we’ll see how it goes.”
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