Seconds make it three from three

But this latest success came at a price as the team limped over the finishing line with twelve players on the pitch, thanks to two injuries and a yellow card.

Clearly the better team in the first half, Bann had opened up a 19 point lead at the interval. A sweeping back move was finished off by Calum Boland’s unconverted try.

Stephen Cowan then spearheaded a breakaway for the second touchdown, with John Ferris adding the conversion. Towards the end of the half Craig Mulholland produced a superb break through the Ards defence but Bann were unable to apply the finishing touch.

But as play remained in the opposition half Glenn Rowan powered his way through the Ards midfield defence on a 35 metre run to the posts, Ferris again adding the extras.

The second half play was much more fractured, with neither side able to put together any meaningful passages.

The Ards out-half found an all too easy path through the Bann lines to score a converted try in the 54th minute.

But despite the loss of Mulholland and Cowan through injury, the visitors worked their way into the Ards half, providing Ferris with the late penalty opportunity which he converted to clinch the win.