Cregagh Wanderers started brightly in their first league game of the year, having lots of possession in their opponents half, yet as the half wore on Ards Rangers pushed hard for a goal and with several corners the first goal of the game came after some poor marking at a corner from Cregagh. Not long after Cregagh then conceded another corner and it was the same story again with some poor marking leading to another goal for Ards Rangers. At the break it was 2-0 to the home side with Cregagh becoming more and more frustrated with limited strikes on goal. Ards Rangers started the strongest in the second half scoring two more in quick sucsession, the later of the two a great strike from outside the area leaving Gareth Bickerstaff with no chance. Cregagh took the centre and invited some early pressure when Darren Mayes and Nikki McCreery had a mix up in the middle of the park but the defence cleared well. Finally Cregagh began to play some slick football on the wide right with s!
everal one-twos from James Grierson and Nikki Mcreery and then releasing Darren Mayes to beat the offside trap and round the goalkeeper to claw one back leaving the score 4-1. After the Cregagh goal Ards Rangers looked shakey with Cregagh having more of the ball in the opponents half with Adam McCullough starting with the ball at the half way line, beating several of the opposition, only to be crowded out in the corner by several defenders. Soon after Cregagh fell asleep and Ards Rangers pushed and got another thanks to some poor clearances from the Cregagh defence. From the resulting kick off Cregagh then put themselves under more pressure playing some poor passes to the back four, and as a cross was fizzed in Jack Britainn attempted to clear only deflecting the ball into the back of his own net. Final result Ards Rangers 6-1 Cregagh Wanderers - m.o.m Curtis Johnstone