MALLARDS IMPRESS AT THE SHOWGROUNDS
Ballinamallard United secured an important three points with victory over on form Newry City at The Showgrounds.
The win moves Mallards to within two points of leading duo Portadown and Loughgall while, for Newry, it was crash back down to earth following their midweek League Cup defeat of Glenavon.
Matthew Smyth opened the scoring for the Mallards after eight minutes when he got his head to a Duwayne McManus corner.
Then, just three minutes after that, another McManus delivery reached Ross Taheny who also nodded past Andy Coleman to double Ballinamallard's lead.
Newry responded on 18 minutes when Mark McCabe did well to create space for himself before curling the ball into the corner of John Connolly's net.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the pace dropped for the remainder of the first half although Ryan Campbell did come close for the Mallards only to fire into the side netting.
However, Campbell did go one better midway through the second half when he burst through the static home defence before slotting Ballinamallard's third below Coleman.
And Newry's afternoon ended on an even worse note when, seven minutes from time, Stephen Moan was shown a straight red card for dissent.
Newry City: Coleman, King, Montgomery, Boyle, McCabe, Foley, Hughes, McGovern, Moan, McArdle, Moller Nielsen subs Moody (not used), Lavery (not used), Rushe (replaced McArdle 74), McKeown (not used), Duffy (replaced McGovern 54)
Ballinamallard United: Connolly, Taheny, Smyth, Clarke, McManus, Campbell, McIlwaine, McCartney, Kelly, O'Reilly, Morris subs McEvoy (not used), McCann (not used), Cashel (replaced McIlwaine 74), Currie (replaced McManus 58), Moorehead (replaced Campbell 88)
Substitution 
Substitution 
