Ballymacash Rangers see off Richhill AFC

Wins over Banbridge Rangers and Windmill Stars had been stand out results, with narrow losses to Crewe United and Newington showing this would be a difficult encounter for Lee Forsythe’s men.

Having scored early in all their home league games so far, the Cash began the game slower than expected and a handful of early attacks failed to trouble the Richhill keeper McIlveen. The away side looked for opportunities on the counter attack, but got very little change from the Cash back four of Kane, Morrison, Glasgow and Parker.

As the half neared the half-way point, Ballymacash began to assert their dominance and the chances started to come with each attack. Michael Moore, who was uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal all afternoon, missed two good chances before Bennett and Ferguson also spurned good opportunities. The Richhill defence were defending well, and in general the away side were slowing play down at every opportunity, with striker Aaron Black offering a useful outlet to hold the ball up to relieve pressure.

With only five minutes to go until half-time the deadlock was finally broken, with good play down the left between Davidson and Parker releasing Ferguson, the forward pulled the ball across the face of goal beyond the reach of any Richhill defenders and left Brendan Bennett with the simples of touches to direct the ball into the empty net.

With the half-time thoughts of manager Lee Forsythe still echoing in the ears of the Ballymacash players, the Lisburn side started the second half in a far better way than they had played for the majority of the opening forty-five minutes. The Cash had penned Richhill in for the majority of the opening fifteen minutes, which had a few moments of handbags which resulted in referee Mark Irwin dishing out a handful of yellow cards.

With an hour gone, some neat play on the left from Ballymacash resulted in the ball dropping on the half volley to left-back Matthew Parker, whose sweetly struck shot swerved away from McIlveen and into the far corner to double his sides lead. This gave the home side some well deserved breathing space and only ten minutes later it was three-nil, as Stephen Glasgow nodded the ball into the net following a goal line scramble after a corner was not dealt with by the visitors.

As the game drew to a close, substitute Justin Armstrong added a nicely taken fourth goal for Lee Forsythe’s men, who added another three points to their Intermediate A total with this well deserved win against a very hard working and stubborn Richhill side. The final game of 2021 takes place this Saturday as Moneyslane FC visit The Bluebell for an Intermediate A fixture, before a two-week winter break takes place.