Chris Curran scoring against Derry City on Monday night
Ballinamallard United 4
Derry City 2
Ballinamallard won out in this glamour friendly fixture on Monday night by scoring four against the FAI Cup winners Derry City.
A good crowd at Ferney Park enjoyed an entertaining game which saw the Brandywell based outfit take the lead through Rafter early on.
Ballinamallard manager Whitey Anderson used the game to give fringe and youth players a taste of top league action with Reserves Nathan Cashel, Chris Crilly and James Turley all getting a chance.
Youth player Gary Phair also made his debut, starting the game at right back.
The Candystripes in the middle of their pre-season dominated the early exchanges before eventually the Ferney Park side got the ball down and played some good football.
The Irish Premier League side answered when Ryan Campbell levelled, taking a good through ball before slotting past the Derry keeper.
Campbell made it 2-1 to the home side when he finished off a good move involving Chris Curran, Jason McCartney and Danny Keohane down the left flank.
City came back with an equaliser when Mark Stafford was adjudged to have fouled inside the penalty area with Rory Patterson converting from the spot kick.
Ballinamallard went into the second half with a few changes, but quickly found their rhythm again.
Chris Curran gave them the lead when beat two defenders before shooting home into the bottom corner of the net.
Then in the final 10 minutes, Chris Crilly, who had come on for Gary Phair, broke down the right flank to deliver a great cross to the back post where Nathan Cashel was lurking to finish well.
Assistant manager Brian Khan felt it was a really good performance against full time professionals.
“I felt our players gave a good account of themselves with midfielder David Kee stealing the show as man of the match,” said Khan.
“Overall we played really good football and for the purist it was superb game to watch. More importantly though it was a good workout for ourselves because we know we have to travel to Donegal Celtic on Saturday for a tough encounter,” he added.