Ards recorded a win and a defeat from their first two league games against Glentoran and Coleraine respectively. On 14th December 1957 Crusaders were the visitors to Castlereagh Park in the third league game.

The match did not start well for Ards as a quick-thinking move from Crusaders saw them go ahead after only nine minutes through Mulholland. The Crusaders goalkeeper was doing a fine job keeping Ards at bay but that early resistance finally crumbled with Jimmy McDonnell's equaliser. A second goal followed after good work by Humphries set up George Richardson to score.

Two minutes into the half Ralph McGuicken scored to make it 3-1 to Ards and from there it was only a case of how many the impressive, Humphries-led Ards would win by. In the 70th minute Hugh Lowry scored a fourth and then McDonnell struck his second to make it five. Ards had even the luxury of missing a penalty, before Liam Munroe knocked in Ards' sixth goal with a few minutes remaining.

Ards had made their mark in that win over Crusaders and most importantly were able to carry that form forward into the next game. Top goal-scorer Liam Munroe would not be part of the party though as within hours of the Crusaders game he had agreed a transfer to Bristol City.

Ards next matches were against Portadown and Bangor. On the Saturday prior to Christmas Ards went to Mid-Ulster to win 2-1 against the Ports and then followed that result up with another high-scoring win - 5-2 against Bangor on Christmas Day, with Hugh Lowry chipping in another goal to edge past Munroe's best tally of eleven. Those last two results took Ards to the top of the table and in a testament to the side, they maintained their top position by going to Glenavon 24 hours following the Bangor game and winning 3-nil.

So far Derry City had been struggling for points and had already suffered defeat to Ards in the now completed City Cup competition. They were visitors next to Castlereagh Park in the fourth game of the Christmas week on 28th December. The press attributed Ards with perhaps the fastest goal of the season in this game; Tommy Forde's strike after only thirty seconds coming on the end of some good work by Lowry.

Ards had signed Bedford Town striker Liam Coll in time for the game but despite scoring with a tap-in header before half-time he was judged to have had a quiet afternoon. Derry upped their game in the second period and after pulling a goal back in the 70th minute had Ards feeling the pressure for the remainder of the game. But sometimes it is dug out wins like this that make a season and up against it in the final quarter Ards hung on to claim another two points.

As January began Ards led the Irish League by two points and were due to play Linfield next. The game at Windsor Park could well have qualified for the comeback of the season as the Blues took a commanding 3-1 lead into the half-time interval, only to suffer a gutsy Ards fight-back.

A penalty kick on 62 minutes, dispatched by Richardson began the Ards revival and as the team laid near siege to the Linfield goal, Richardson scored again to bring the score to 2-3. If Linfield were by then on the ropes, the sucker punch from Hugh Lowry on 74 minutes had them struggling for breath. At 4-4 Ards had snatched a vital point from nowhere and it was the point that would keep them clear at the top of the table that Saturday night from Ballymena and Glenavon.

A week later Ards came from behind again, although this time in a starkly contrasted match against Cliftonville. The Reds had taken an early lead, but had nowhere near the class of a confident Ards team who, led by four-goal Hugh Lowry, turned in a 7-2 victory. A trip to near-challengers Ballymena United followed the next weekend and though success was expected and Ards' first half play certainly seemed to indicate that it would come, a draw in the end was all that could be mustered.

That slight falter let in Glenavon, who with four straight wins since Christmas joined Ards on 18 points thanks to a 5-1 win over Glentoran. A game with the Glens' second XI was up next for Ards in the opening round of the Irish Cup... to be continued

Part five