Waterside men move clear

CAW travelled to Ballykelly for this week's league fixture with a chance to go three points clear of Newbuildings United Reserves at the top of the Second Division, as their game with Donemana was called off.

The weather was sunny and crisp a perfect day for football, and the pitch was in good shape but a little soft underfoot and sure to get heavy as the game went on.

Ballykelly started the game defensively with one up front and five in midfield to try and thwart Caw's young talent, but both teams started well with some good football being played on both sides.

The Waterside men created several good chances but failed to make any of them count. Ballykelly were soaking up the pressure and trying to catch Caw on the counter but they failed to ask any questions of the Caw defence or big Fiffer in the Caw net.

Caw's pressure paid off with the hardworking Jeff Lynch getting his just rewards. Some great build up play saw the ball slipped through to Lynch who made no mistake in putting the visitors one up.

From this point on the result seemed sure to go Caw's way as Ballykelly failed to create much in the way of attack.

Ballykelly started the second half with a change of formation changing to a 4-4-2 hoping to suppress the attacking full-backs of Caw. In the first ten minutes after the break saw Ballykelly on the front foot and they started to give Caw a game.

A clumsy challenge by the Caw centre half gave Ballykelly a free kick on the edge of the penalty area, with which they worked Fiffer in the Caw net forcing him to make a fine save.

Minutes later Fiffer was called into action again when a scramble for the ball in the Caw penalty area resulted in the Ballykelly centre forward poking the ball goal wards only to be tipped round the post by Fiffer.

Holmes had a few good runs from midfield which were causing problems for the Ballykelly defence. One of these runs saw Holmes slip the ball wide then continue his run and receive the ball back again inside the Ballykelly box for him to smash home and put the visitors two up with a quarter of an hour remaining.

Ballykelly knew they were beaten now and the game petered out with the only notable event being Kelpie running through the heart of the Ballykelly defence to find himself one on one with the keeper but a fine save kept the score at 2-0.