Ards Rangers Reserves 0 Enniskillen Town 3

Enniskillen Town safely navigated the opening round of the fonaCAB Junior Cup with a 3-0 win away to Ards Rangers Reserves on Saturday.

The former two time winners of the competition took the lead three minutes into the second half through a Cathal Beacom free kick and they never looked back from that as Conall Quinn converted a penalty before Johnny Hoy rounded off the scoring late on to send Town through.

“It was fairly comfortable,” said Town joint manager Rory Judge.

“We didn’t know a thing about them and I suppose that’s both the beauty and the fear of the Junior Cup when you draw an unknown quantity, you don’t know what to expect.

“I never felt though that we were in any danger, especially after we took the lead.” And Judge says that they got what they came for which was progress into the next round.

“All you want from the first round is to get the win and get in the hat for the next round and we did that,” he added.

Town had looked the likelier side in the first period of the contest although they felt a couple of marginal decisions went against them in the first 45 minutes.

Frank Wallace thought he had opened the scoring for Town but his effort was ruled out by a tight offside call while Conall Quinn then sneaked a shot under the home keeper but Town’s claimed the ball had crossed the line before it was cleared by the home side were waved away by the referee.

However, Town were to have a numerical advantage going into the second half after an Ards Rangers players was dismissed after picking up a second yellow card.

And within three minutes of the restart the Fermanagh and Western outfit took the lead.

Cathal Beacom’s free kick was hit with pace although the home goalkeeper will maybe feel that he should have done better with the ball going through his arms.

The visitors went on to control matters after this with Ards Rangers offering little threat to a solid Town defence.

The game was then put to bed 15 minutes from time when Wallace was taken out of it in the area leaving the referee no option but to point to the spot and Quinn stepped up to fire into the top corner to make it 2-0.

And Town wrapped things up in the 85th minute as a well worked move ended up at the feet of Hoy who tucked it away to leave it 3-0 at the final whistle.