Enniskillen Athletic 0-8 Ballinamallard Reserves

Jack Beatty scored a hat-trick for Ballinamallard Reserves as they moved to the top of Division Two with a convincing 8-0 victory over Enniskillen Athletic. 

Beatty scored twice in the first five minutes to give the Mallards an ideal start. Conor Stewart then made it three, before Beatty completed his treble in the 33rd minute.

Reece Byrne and Dylan Boyle then added two goals apiece as Ballinamallard moved one point clear at the top of the division. 

Ballinamallard manager Ally Irwin was happy with his team’s performance, especially their first-half showing that yielded five goals.  

“I don’t think you could have asked for much more in the first half,” he said.  

“The Athletic keeper made a couple of decent saves or we could have been looking at two or three more, and to be fair to our defence, outside of the keeper claiming a couple of corners, he didn’t have a lot to do.

"If you look at what happened in both boxes, I think we were good value for 5-0 at the end of the first half.

"There was half an hour in the second half when we never really got ourselves going.

"In their minds, they knew at 5-0 the game was already over and all we had to do was control it and make sure they didn’t score.

"That is what we did, but we didn’t get back to moving the ball like we had in the first half. In the last 15 minutes of the game, we picked up again and scored three more goals.  

"It is nice to keep a clean sheet and nice to score plenty of goals, and ultimately get the three points.” 

Ballinamallard took an early lead when Adam McCreery’s through ball beat the offside trap and Jack Beatty raced clear to score with just twenty seconds on the clock.

Beatty then added a second after five minutes when he blocked goalkeeper Darragh Burke’s clearance and tapped into the unguarded net.

Burke then spread himself to deny Beatty, diverting his shot over the bar, and he was called into action again moments later when Henry Miskimmin’s diagonal pass set Boyle away down the right wing.

His shot was heading inside the far post before Burke’s fingertips deflected it wide.

The keeper was helpless to prevent Ballinamallard scoring a third after 25 minutes.

Adam Wallace was playing an influential role in midfield, and he clipped a pass over the full back for Dylan Seaney and his low cross was tapped in at the back post by Stewart.  

Athletic finally tested Ballinamallard keeper James Mills after half an hour when Matthew McAleer showed good footwork to create space on the edge of the penalty area, but Mills got down to make the save.  

Moments later the Mallards added a fourth, McCreery spraying the ball wide to Byrne whose low-driven cross was turned in by Beatty to complete his hat-trick.  

McCreery then had a goal-bound shot deflected wide before Byrne made it five just before the break with an outside-of-the-foot finish from the corner of the penalty area. 

Ballinamallard struggled to sustain their attacking dominance in the early stages of the second half and Tiarnan McKenna came close to scoring for Athletic when he fired inches wide of the post.

Dylan Boyle then had a shot saved from substitute Ben Arnold’s cutback, before Arnold was dismissed for two yellow cards.

The Mallard’s numerical disadvantage had little impact on the game, however, as the visitors finished strongly.

Byrne intercepted a pass and slotted past Burke to make it six, and Boyle then lifted a shot over the keeper to add a seventh.

The victory was completed by Boyle in the final minute, as he collected a pass from Beatty and fired across the keeper into the far corner.