Lisnaskea Rovers 2 Ballinamallard Reserves 10 

Adam McCreery grabbed a first-half hat-trick as Ballinamallard Reserves hit double figures against Lisnaskea Rovers.   

Lisnaskea’s Gabriel Jones had equalised for Rovers after an early goal from McCreery, but the Mallards then ran riot with another six goals before the halftime interval, with Dylan Donnelly, Jack Beatty and Conor Stewart all finding the net.

The goals continued to flow after the break with Reece Byrne and a Ben Arnold brace taking the away side into double figures. 

Reserves’ manager Ally Irwin was delighted with his team’s goal scoring feats.  

“Any game where you have created enough chances to score ten goals is great, and the one thing that has been consistent in this team is that it is not just one man scoring the goals,” he said.  

“We have a great spread of goals throughout the team, which is great to see. We played well but I do think we have more in us as well.” 

The win takes Ballinamallard to within three points of the league leaders with a game in hand, but Irwin is expecting the race for the title to be closely fought.  

“It is nice to be sitting in the higher up areas of the league, but we are only a quarter of the way through,” he said.

“I think it will be in about four or five games time you will get a proper idea of the structure of the league. At the moment it is very much still up for debate who is going to end up where.

"I think it is going to be one of those types of leagues where most teams can beat each other. That is an exciting league to have as a neutral, but it’s a scary league if you are trying to manage one of the teams in it.”

 Ballinamallard controlled possession in the early stages of the game and they were rewarded after nine minutes when captain McCreery headed in Shane Speak’s corner.  

The visitors only held the lead for two minutes, however, as Rovers took advantage of a close-range free kick. James Mills was adjudged to have picked up a deliberate back pass, and Gabriel Jones found the bottom corner of the net to equalise.  

Ballinamallard quickly restored their lead when Rovers failed to clear a ball into the penalty area and McCreery drove a low shot into the corner from 20 yards out.  

Jack Beatty then set up Dylan Donnelly to score from 15 yards, before McCreery completed a 16-minute hat-trick from the penalty spot after Beatty’s cross had been handled. 

Ballinamallard were in total control of the contest and after half an hour scored their fifth when Cameron Lucas’ cross was turned into his own net by Kelan Kernaghan.

McCreery’s through ball then released Beatty, and he slotted past goalkeeper Shaunie Montgomery.

Just before the halftime whistle, it was seven when Beatty beat a defender on the left wing and whipped in a cross that Conor Stewart converted. 

Reece Byrne made it eight after ten minutes of the second half when he collected Lucas’ pass and rifled a shot into the top corner.

Caolan Swift pulled one back for Rovers with a 30-yard lob that caught out the Mallard’s goalkeeper, but two minutes later Ballinamallard scored again, substitute Ben Arnold converting Beatty’s pass.  

The pair combined again seven minutes from time, with Arnold claiming his second goal of the match.