Football: Tobermore victory sees Ballymoney relegated

Tobermore 3-0 Ballymoney UnitedThere was a day of mixed emotions at Fortwilliam Park on Saturday as Tobermore proved to strong for a Ballymoney team who were fighting for their survival.
Tobermore's Dean StewartTobermore's Dean Stewart
Tobermore's Dean Stewart

This was a game full of highs and lows, the high point for the home side the return of Neil Lamont who completed, his first full 90 minutes of football in two years ago.

The low point came when Ballymoney realised that their valiant late fight to survive in Championship 2 had come to an end with the 3-0 defeat.

Ballymoney had come into the game full of confidence having won their previous two games, including a deserved 2-1 victory last week over their hosts today.

Any chance of a repeat performance was dealt a significant blow when Lamont’s strength and persistence saw him slot past Bryan Moore for Tobermore’s opener with twelve minutes gone.

The visitors never really showed the same grit and determination in this game as they did in their previous two but Tobermore seemed to have got the message from their manager that last week’s performance wasn’t acceptable as they went looking to add to the scoreline.

Although on top for most of the first half it took Tobermore until the 58th minute to get their second when Seamus Brown reacted quickest to tap in from close range when Moore could only parry a wicked free kick onto his crossbar that dropped invitingly for the big forward.

Ballymoney did stage a late rally but any chance of a comeback was ended when substitute Trevor Parkhill beat Moore with a wicked deflection five minutes from the end.

With better passing and finishing Tobermore could have added to the scoreline late on but most were happy to bag the three points and put last weeks poor performance behind them.

Tobermore would like to wish Ballymoney United all the best for next season, in whatever league they are accepted into, and hopefully they will be back in Championship 2 before very long.

Tobermore: M McGraw, A Neill, D Magee, G Donaldson, C Kearns, S Glasgow, D Stewart, S Brown, N Lamont, M Curtis, H Batista. Subs: C Kilpatrick, T Parkhill, R Winton, C Deane.

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