FIFTY-FIFTY…Naomi Cathcart in a race to win the bouncing ball
Fermanagh Mallards 0
Ballymena United 5
Fermanagh Mallards opened their Premier League season with a heavy defeat to Ballymena.
But it was only in the final 15 minutes that the visitors got the upper hand adding four to their one goal from the first half.
The young Mallards outfit gave a good account of themselves and the scoreline doesn’t give a true reflection of the game.
Indeed the Ballinamallard based girls played the better football for most of the opening half, but were caught out by silly mistakes and couldn’t find their goalscoring touch up front, despite creating a number of good chances.
At half time the score was 1-0 after a goal for Ballymena in the 15th minute.
At the start of the second half Mallards started well and looked promising with Kathy Dane exceptional in midfield.
Then with jut 20 minutes left Ballymena netted their second.
The home side’s heads dropped and a few errors let Ballymena score five in total despite the best efforts of the very young Mallards team.
The back four consisting of three under 17s make their debuts in the Premier League.
Hannah Woods, Kia Collins, and Lucy Barr were resilient for so long and have shown great potential to work and will no doubt only become more solid with a bit of experience.
Mallards face another tough contest tonight, Wednesday, when they travel away to Strangford Avenue, Belfast to play Linfield Ladies.
This season this fixture has a bit more bite to it as Mallards will be opposing a former player Louise McFrederick who signed for the Blues at the start of the year.