Ballynure have edge over Raceview

TWICE Raceview fought back to equalise, but were eventually defeated 4-3 by Ballynure Old Boys when the two sides met on Saturday.

Uncharacteristically, these two former Ballymena League Intermediate Divisison champions find themselves in the bottom half of the table, and as expected itproved to be an evenly-contested affair.

Gary Burns’ lads started in top gear and were two up after 20 minutes. Ronnie Burns opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a low shot after latching on to a pass by Mark Leckey. Later Burns turned provider for Johnny Robinson who doubled the lead with a firm header.

The Broughshane lads opened their account with a header, and in the 27th minute the scores were level again when they netted from a penalty for a Leckey handling offence.

In the 40th minute ‘Nure claims for a penalty were ignored, but just before the interval they regained the lead when Burns doubled his tally with a header from a Robinson cross.

After the break Raceview were restricted to sporadic counterattacks, but from one of them their right-winger made it 3-3 on the hour.

Justice was done four minutes from time when Burns completed his hat-trick. He collected a pass from Simon McGreevy, turned his marker, and fired in the winner.

Reflecting Michael Graham said, “Neither of these teams are as strong as they used to be, however with Mark Leckey and Michael Duff in control in midfield and the Curlett brothers Gareth and Mark solid at the back, we never looked like losing and were worthy winners in this seven-goal thriller.”

Ballynure OB: Stewart; Penny, Robinson, G Curlett, M Curlett; Reid, Leckey, Duff, McGreevy; Burns, Miskimmin. Subs: Hegarty, Hall, Gibson.