Wanderers hit eight to seal Division Two title in great style

Irvinestown Wanderers rounded off their league campaign in style with an 8-0 romp at home to strugglers Maguiresbridge to be crowned Division Two champions at the Bawnacre Centre.

Wanderers’ manager Darren Higginbotham was pleased to see his side solidify top spot and regain promotion in his first season in charge.

“We set the lads a number of targets at the start of the season, and they delivered,” he said.

“It was a great season, we said we would take each game at a time and that stood us in good stead throughout the season.

“We are very aware we are a work in progress, we are building towards something that we have to keep working on. We are, by no means, a finished article but certainly, in terms of playing the way we want and improving it’s been really positive.

“I’m delighted for the club because they deserve days like that, there are a lot of good people behind the scenes and days like Saturday are for those people.”

Wanderers dominated Saturday’s encounter from start to finish as they bounced back from their loss to Castlederg.

Forward Joey Millar opened the scoring two minutes in as he finished a one-on-one chance into the bottom left corner.

17-year-old Barry Goodwin made it two when he went on a mazy run and curled an effort into the bottom right corner for a 2-0 half-time lead.

Caolan Ward found a third seven minutes into the second half as he finished from Jordan Palmer’s cutback. Ronan Ormsby’s dink made it 4-0 and 16-year-old Mattie McDermott netted his first of two goals to make it five.

Dwayne Carleton took down a high ball in the box and found Daniel Noble who slotted the ball into the bottom corner for a sixth goal with around 15 minutes to go.

Then McDermott cut inside the box and struck the ball into the bottom corner for his second and Noble also completed his brace to make it 8-0 as he volleyed home from inside the box to round off a very one-sided contest and one to forget for the away side.

Irvinestown are scheduled to take on Beragh Swifts in the Mulhern Cup this weekend, with Higginbotham adding: “We are aware we are underdogs going into the game. Beragh are a fantastic club, we know we are going to have to be at our very best to get a result.”

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