Enniskillen too much for Toon at home

After a well-deserved week off, League action returned on Saturday as JKC/Causeway Geotech sponsored Ballymoney 1st XV welcomed unbeaten Enniskillen to Kilraughts Road. Confidence was high in the home camp following the away win to Portadown but the Toon men knew that the visitors would be a step up again.

The home side started strongly with the lions share of possession and, with 15 minutes opened the scoring, sustained pressure inside the visitors 22 led to the ball being moved wide and Andy Young crossed the line with Aaron Gervais adding the conversion.
Enniskillen came back at Ballymoney and, having put the home team under the cosh with several penalties conceded, David McKeeman was yellow carded. From the resulting penalty, Skins scored their first try converted by the kicker to level the score.

Straight from the kick off the visitors doubled their lead when they kicked into the corner, caught and drove the lineout with the conversion added to bring the score 14-7 to the visitors. Enniskillen continued to take advantage of the extra man and, soon after scored their third converted try. The teams went into the half time break 21-7 to Skins.

The visitors stretched their lead even further at the start of the second half with a penalty; midway through the half Scott Gamble was yellow carded harshly for a deliberate knock on and, again the visitors capitalised with a further two tries, now giving them a commanding 38-7 lead.
The home side continued to battle hard and were awarded for their efforts towards the end, when winger Johnny McMullan regathered his chip kick to beat a few defenders to cross the line, final score 38-14.

“A hard day today,” said Coach/Player Martin Irwin after the game, “we started strongly however, Enniskillen put us under pressure midway through the half which led to the yellow, they used their experience to capitalise and scored 3 tries and, then a further couple in the second half. We take a lot of positives from this game and realise this is the level we need to get to. We travel to Grosvenor this week and we’ll be out on the training pitch to keep improving and working hard.”