NFC Kesh 0 Lisbellaw United 3 Three second half goals for Lisbellaw earned them all three points against basement club Kesh on Saturday.

Two strikes from Sam Lindsay and one from Paul McGrath gave them the win after Kesh had provided stubborn resistance in the early stages, but despite the victory manager Andy Reilly admits last week’s loss to Strathroy has probably ended their hopes of retaining their league title.

“The most important thing was to win after last week’s showing,” he said. “In truth there wasn’t much in it but I felt we shaded it. A clean sheet was good to see as well. As for the title, it is Strathroy’s to lose there’s no doubt about it. They shouldn’t throw it away but if they do we’ve got to be in a position to capitalise”

After a tight first half Kesh had several chances to upset the title challengers, and manager Niall Amos was frustrated that they did not make the most of their opportunities.

“If we had taken our chances it could have been a different story,” he reflected.

“At half time we would have said it was going to finish 0-0 and you certainly wouldn’t have thought it was going to be 3-0. In the end to could have been 5-0 or 3-3. It was disappointing because we worked so hard and put so much into it, but we were probably a wee bit naive at times defending as a team. We made individual mistakes. We have been playing some alright stuff recently and the boys came off disappointed we didn’t get something from it. When you are competing with the boys at the top then you are doing something right and it’s a good sign. We have Magheraveely at home on Saturday now and it is a game we have to win.”

The opening 45 minutes yielded little in the way of goal mouth action, although Lisbellaw did have several half chances which they failed to capitalise on.

Twice Tiarnan Magee failed to hit the target with speculative shots, but it was McGrath that had the best chance of the opening half, but he failed to beat the keeper when put through.

Ten minutes into a more entertaining second half Kesh’s Grant Ellis fired wide when he got on the end of a Lee Walker free kick, and the home side were made to pay when they went behind seconds later.

From the restart Magee released Lindsay with a great ball down the left channel and the young protégé produced a cool finish.

McGrath soon added a second for the visitors from close range but Kesh had not given up and Ellis once again came close but could not keep his close range effort down. Niall McMenamin then got on to the end of an Adam Bruce cross but missed the target, and with ten minutes remaining Lisbellaw sealed the win when Lindsay added his second of the day.

There was still time for Lindsay to fire a shot off the crossbar and McFrederick made a good save to keep out a deflected Lee Walker free kick, as Lisbellaw claimed the points.