Swifts keep the pressure on

Coalisland managed to get the better of Lurgan Town allowing the Gers to close the gap to one point on second place thanks to a four goal return by striker John McCahon who celebrated his 24th birthday in style.

Things didn’t go to plan for Rangers at the start as they found themselves trailing by an early goal when a Richhill player poked home the ball after a corner wasn’t dealt with effectively. On 17 minutes Rangers started to press Richhill back and were rewarded with an equaliser as John McCahon cut in from the right hand side and curled into the far corner. Four minutes later an identical situation saw McCahon shoot from the same area but a fortuitous bounce took the ball over the spawling keeper McCune and into the net to give the Gers the lead.

Banbridge Rangers exetended their lead to 3-1 just after the half hour mark when McCahon pulled back for Jordan McCracken to drill into the back off the net. Dean Gordon then went close and could have made it 4-1 just before half time but midread the bounce and skied over the bar from four yards out.

This acted as a wake up call for Richhill who came out for the second half much more determined to stay in contention and pushed the Gers back with a wave of pressure. Richhill pulled a goal back on 58 minutes to bring the score to 3-2 and with just over half an hour remaining it could have went either way. After a couple of half chances a piece Banbridge Rangers finally gave themselves breathing distance with fifteen minutes to spare when McCahon sealed his hattrick cutting back from the byline before slotting in from three yards.

The three points were wrapped up by the goal off the game by John McCahon who took a shot with his unfavoured right foot from over twenty yards with ball sailing into the top corner.

Banbridge Rangers Swifts will be hoping to take maximum points from their trip to Broomhedge this Saturday and keep the pressure on Lurgan Town who are only a point ahead in the race for promotion to Reserve Division Two.