Ballinamallard United 6 Newbuildings 2

Ballinamallard are through to the semi finals of the North West Senior Cup after a comfortable 6-2 victory over Newbuildings at Ferney Park.

The Mallards home ground has not yet witnessed a win in the league this season, but there were no issues against intermediate league opposition Newbuildings. John Edgar scored twice in the opening quarter to give the Mallards a great start, and Darragh Byrne, Ben McCann, Reece Byrne and BJ Banda all added their names to the score sheet as they eased to victory.

Edgar opened the scoring in the 12th minute, and added another midway through the half.

Reece Byrne received the ball at his feet in the centre circle, and he turned the defender and threaded a pass between the centre back and full back for brother Darragh Byrne, who advanced down the right wing and cut the ball back for Edgar to grab his second of the night from close range.

One minute later the Mallards added a third when they won possession high up the pitch, with Darragh Byrne rising unmarked six yards from goal to head in a left wing cross.

One setback in the first half was the loss of Sam Robb, who was replaced by Joshua McIlwaine, and the Mallards suffered another blow in the opening seconds of the second half when Newbuildings worked the ball in behind the defence, with the striker angling a shot across goalkeeper Jamie Ray in the Ballinamallard goal and into the bottom corner.

On the hour mark, Ballinamallard restored their three goal advantage. Josh McIlwaine had a header cleared off the goal line, but from the subsequent corner the ball was worked out to Reece Byrne on the right wing, and his cross was headed in by an unmarked McCann from ten yards.

Byrne then had a shot tipped onto the post by the Newbuildings keeper, but he did find the net ten minutes later when he rifled a shot into the roof of the net from 15 yards.

Ballinamallard introduced top scorer BJ Banda with ten minutes remaining, and he was only on the pitch two minutes before he added the Mallard’s sixth, dispatching a shot across the keeper.

Newbuildings did grab a late goal, and the home team missed late chances from Banda and McIlwaine, but the result had been long since decided.