Ballyclare draw with high-flying Mallards

Jason Johnston opened the scoring for the home side on 37 minutes, but goals after the break from Callum Moorehead (47) and Sean McEvoy (64) tipped the balance in favour of the Fermanagh outfit before Andrew Mooney levelled for the home side with around 20 minutes remaining.

The result keeps the south Antrim side in eighth place in the Lough 41 NIFL Championship standings, while Ballinamallard, who started the day in second spot, drop to third after Loughgall won 4-1 against Knockbreda to climb up the table.

Speaking to the Comrades media team following the match, manager Paul Harbinson said: “Really entertaining for anyone who is a neutral. Obviously, we’re far from that and I felt in the first half we should have had the game dead and buried. We’d chances to win it and we’ve talked consistently about our execution and our decision making.

“I’ve used the word frustrating consistently and I’ll use it again- frustrating that our execution and or decision making in the final third wasn’t what it needed to be today, because I think we could have gone in at half time with maybe two or three.

“The second half, we’ve come out and Ballinamallard could argue exactly the same thing and could have had the game dead and buried within 20 minutes. We were all over the place, right from the kick-off. We’ve gifted them the ball back and we’ve looked shell-shocked and we’ve looked panicked. That’s a little concerning that we went into ourselves for around 20 minutes, but all credit to the boys, they’ve really dug in and worked hard together and got the equaliser. I felt at that stage that it was a really open game and I think we’d chances again to win it.

“You could say you’re disappointed to drop a couple of points because you’ve missed chances, but Ballinamallard could probably say the same thing, so yes, a good game of football.”

Praising Mooney for scoring after a spell out of the side through injury, Harbinson added: “Andy is a goal scorer, we know that. He did really well today. He held the ball up for us and he brought players in. He started to tire because he hasn’t played a lot, but what a joy to bring Michael Smith on and if we can get Michael 100 per cent, the joy that they will bring.

“That’s something we’ve talked about. The fact we haven’t had those natural players who want to go in behind, up until now. Now we’ve got them in abundance. We’ve Owen McKeown who wants to go forward and get in behind, we’ve Kyle Beggs who wants to do the same, Caiolan Brennan wants to do the same, and that gives us an outlet.

“We’re now starting to play the way we want to play and it’s great to see the players wanting to do that.

“We know that wanting to win a league is long since gone, but the process of building for the future and what we’re doing now, what we see there, the quality that we have is fantastic. The players all want to be a part of it. The results will come because the performance today was fantastic.”

The Comrades return to league action on Friday, February 11 away to Harland and Wolff Welders (7.45pm).

----