Institute go down at home to Ballinamallard

Despite taking the lead thanks to Joel Bradley Walsh's early free-kick, Institute suffered yet another defeat, as in-form Ballinamallard United came from behind to seal the points.

Brian Donaghey's side to their credit looked more of a threat this weekend, but again their Achilles heel of conceding poor goals and making bad decisions, meant they slumped to their 12th league defeat of the campaign.

The home side took the lead after just two minutes in superb fashion, as Bradley Walsh made no mistake curling a lovely free-kick into Rory Brown's bottom right hand corner, after the lively Liam Walsh had been brought down on the edge of the box.

The woodwork came to Stute's rescue minutes later as Lee Warnock's header at the back post hit the crossbar and BJ Banda missed an even better chance on 11 minutes as the ex-Finn Harps man's side footed strike from close range was instinctively kept out by Stute keeper John Connolly.

The Drumahoe side went close twice in quick succession as Rhys McDermott had a effort deflected wide and Bradley Walsh's goal bound header was cleared off the line by Joshua McIlwaine.

Ballinamallard drew level on 27 minutes as Banda's curling in swinging corner from the right picked out McIlwaine and the big striker rose unchallenged to head home from close range.

On 38 minutes a neat passing move by the home side ended with Aidan McCauley feeding Walsh, but the big striker's left footed effort from 12 yards was tipped around his left post by a diving Brown.

Institute went close to regaining the lead on 55 minutes but Patrick McLaughlin's close range header at the back post, was cleared off the line by Richard Clarke.

The visitors were rightfully awarded a penalty on 63 minutes as Banda was brought down inside the box by Shaun Doherty and the free scoring striker made no mistake with the resulting spot-kick, planting the ball low into Connolly's right hand corner.

Ballinamallard had half chances in the closing stages, as the home side were pushing for an equaliser, but Connolly kept out Callum Moorehead's long range free-kick and Banda missed a chance to add to his tally.

Institute: John Connolly, Rhys McDermott, Shaun Leppard, Joel Bradley Walsh, Conor Quigley; Patrick McLaughlin, Aidan McCauley, Shaun Doherty; Joel Gorman (Oran Brogan 72), Liam Walsh (Aaron McGurk 72), Jamie Dunne.

Ballinamallard United: Rory Brown, Colm McLaughlin, Richard Clarke, Aaron Arkinson, BJ Banda (Darragh Byrne 89), Joshua McIlwaine, Christopher Kelly, Sean McEvoy, John Edgar (Ryan Morrow 61), Callum Moorehead, Lee Warnock (Dean Curry 61).

Referee: Shane McGonigle