Irvinestown Wanderers remain hot on the heels of Division Two table toppers Enniskillen Santos following Saturday’s comprehensive 7-1 victory over Spamount Swifts at the Bawnacre.

The win moves Wanderers to within one point of Santos and keeps them five clear of third placed Strule with a game in hand. There was only one goal separating the sides in the first half on Saturday, Chris O’Brien’s deflected strike giving the home side the lead after 30 minutes. And they were to put the game to bed in the second half with Gary Maguire helping himself to hat-trick on their way to victory.

“It was a pleasing second half,” said Irvinestown joint manager Dermot McCann. “We bossed things in the first half without creating any real clear cut chances but in the second 45 minutes we were very good and ran out easy winners in the end. We had been relying on Chris O’Brien to get us goals in recent weeks so it was great to see others chipping in on Saturday and I thought Gary Maguire was excellent.” The league takes a back seat this coming week with Irvinestown in Junior Cup action against Tullyally Colts at the Bawnacre and McCann feels it is going to be big test.

“We know it is going to be tough. They have two strikers who have been scoring goals for fun so we need to be on our toes and hopefully we will be able to get a few of our injured players back for the game,” he added.

On Saturday, Irvinestown were to control matters in the first half although they struggled to breakdown the Spamount defence. However, with half an hour on the clock the home side took the lead although there was a touch of fortune surrounding the opener. O’Brien, who bagged hat-tricks in each of his last two games, cut back from the byeline before firing the ball across the face of goal, his effort deflecting off a defender and ending up in the back of the net to give the Wanderers the lead at the break.

And having made the breakthrough they went on to pull clear in the second half with Kevin Swift an instrumental figure in the middle of the park.

Maguire grabbed his first of the game soon after the resumption when he raced through to tuck the ball home following a good passage of play and the same player made it 3-0 shortly after when he collected the ball on the left before cutting in and slotting to the net.

Liam Murphy and Maguire linked up to provide Christopher McMulkin with a tap in for number four and O’Brien then made it 5-0. Swift’s header forward from midfield sent O’Brien scampering through and with the goalkeeper in no mans land he clipped the ball over him to the empty goal.

Spamount did pull a goal back but Irvinestown continued to dominate and Maguire completed his hat-trick before substitute Christopher Lyons wrapped up the scoring as he dinked the ball to the corner to leave it 7-1 at the conclusion.