AMATEUR LEAGUE: Islandmagee boss King delighted with draw against Derriaghy

“The clean sheet and point is a good platform to build on,” he said. “The new lads have settled in well and everyone is playing for their shirt but we won’t be getting carried away. We still have 12 games to play, most of which are double-headers against the top teams in the division.”

Elsewhere Wellington Rec stay third in Division 1b after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle at Brookvale Park.

The Millbrook outfit twice came from behind through Christopher Morton and Craig Todd.

“It was probably a fair enough result, considering I had five strikers missing,” said Rec boss, Stephen Donald. “We could have won it with Scott Todd hitting the bar and Colin Paisley missing a good chance near the end.”

Eighteenth Newtownabbey, meanwhile, dropped their first points since the appointment of joint manager Mark Miskimmin, going down 3-1 at second-placed Bangor Amateurs.

It wasn’t a happy return to the fold either for Mark’s brother Ross, who missed a penalty four minutes in and then was shown a second yellow early in the second half.

Bangor’s one-goal interval advantage was cancelled out 15 minutes from time thanks to a classy strike from debutant Mark Marshall.

From there on in 18th went all out for the win, only to be caught twice on the counter-attack.

Boss Miskimmin explained: “We could have hung on for a point but having already dropped so many, we had to go for all three - even with 10 men!”

Elsewhere, two goals inside a minute saw Larne Tech tumble to their fifth defeat on the spin, away to Comber Rec.

While the Old Boys have 19 points out of 24 on home turf, on the road they’ve lost six out of seven with their only win coming at Barn back in August.

“Our away form has been terrible and it’s killing us,” agreed manager Johnny Hastings. “If you can’t pick up points away from home, you’re always going to be a mid-table team!”

Elsewhere, Paddy O’Donnell got UUJ’s goal in a 6-1 defeat at Colin Valley, Rathfern were also hit for six at Rosario and spare a thought for Newington Rangers, hammered 14-1 at home by Dunmurry YM.