South ease to comfortable win at Cliftonville

South Antrim Firsts began their league campaign with a trip to newly promoted Cliftonville looking to put last season’s disappointing end behind them.

The game started well for South with some nice passing moves being foiled around the edge of the circle. However, Cliftonville looked dangerous on the break and won several short corners, all of which were well defended by the South Antrim defence.

The opening goal of the game came midway through the first half when South won a series of short corners. Adam Glass got his first league goal of the season through a precise drag flick into the corner.

South doubled their lead soon after when an Adam Glass pass was coolly converted on the reverse by John Semple.

The third goal of the afternoon came when Ward Phillips broke forward from right back receiving a pass just outside the 25. Ward then beat two players before firing the ball into the net.

South Antrim looked dangerous throughout the first half and their press had Cliftonville attempting some very dangerous cross field passes out from the back.

South went into the second half with a comfortable 3-0 lead but Cliftonville started the second half much the brighter and won a series of short corners early on from some erratic defending from the Lisburn side. Once again though, the South Antrim short corner defence coped well and were able to see the period out without too much trouble.

South Antrim got their fourth of the day from their prolific Captain Lee Marshall who converted via a well worked short corner routine.

Goal numbers 5 and 6 came from Adam Glass and Ward Phillips who were left unmarked inside the circle and both finished well from close range.

This capped a comfortable, yet uninspiring way to end the day as South were not able to reach their top form but were happy to still come out with a good victory to begin their league campaign.

Thanks go to September’s Sponsor of the Month, Sportsdock.

Fixtures for this weekend are as follows: 1sts v Campbellians (A) 1.45pm, 2nds v Raphoe (A) 4pm, 3rds v Bangor (A) 1.00pm, 4ths NISC (A) Friday 8.00pm and 5ths Campbellians (A) 3.15pm.