It was more away day misery for Ards as they crashed to their second league defeat in three games. Loughgall ,who were relegated last season, are now sitting pretty at the top of the table with nine points while Kincaid's men are languishing in the bottom half.

Ards started the brighter of the two playing some attractive football but Loughgall always had the physical edge. Loughgall broke the deadlock mid way through the first half when the Ards defence failed to deal with a long free kick into the penalty box. The ball rolled off the body of the Villagers' centre half Alan Murphy and bounced into the corner of the net.

New man David Wright nearly equalised for Ards before half time when he got on the end of quick Aaron McKee free kick. The striker did everything right apart from hit the back of the net; Marc Robinson in the Loughgall goal saving the weak effort from close range.

Ards piled on the pressure, forcing Loughgall deeper and deeper into their own half. Darren Sterling had Ards' best chance to equal the score when his pile driver forced Robinson into making a flying save. With Ards pushing forward it was always likely there was going to be another goal, unfortunately it went to Loughgall.

The goal came down the left hand side when Pentland and Adamczyk linked up well and Pentland whipped the ball into the box for Noel Robinson to steer home. The frustrating thing for the Ards team about the goal is that it came from an Ards free kick. A poor Aaron McKee free rebounded back off the wall to Kris Pike who lost the ball allowing the home side to break.

Late on in the game Craig McMillen hit the post and David Wright floated a free kick over the bar but in truth Ards never looked like clawing back the two goals. In fact Loughgall had chances to add to their advantage in the closing stages.

While Ards had a lot of the play and may have felt the referee did not offer them enough protection Loughgall probably did enough to merit the three points. Ards struggled to deal with their physical nature and long ball game, which, while unattractive to watch, created more chances than the Ards passing game.

The worst thing for Ards were the amount of injuries they picked up. Johnny Cleary, David Cully and Ryan Newberry were all forced off injured while Gary Clifford and Johnny Roy both struggled on to the end of the game despite injuries. Clifford was a complete passenger for the last 15 minutes looking like he was in real pain. Clifford, Cleary and Cully are now all doubts for the Carnegie League Cup Semi Final against Loughgall at Taylor's Avenue, Carrickfergus on Tuesday week.

Team	Substitutes
1 Andy McDonald (GK)	3 Kris Pike (for Cleary 20)
2 Darren Nixon	5 James Wilson
4 Gary Spence	11 Ricky Billing (for Newberry 53)
7 Craig McMillen	15 Gary Clifford (for Cully 50)
8 Ryan Newberry	20 Justin McBride
9 Darren Stirling
10 Aaron McKee (capt)	Referee Ian Hall
12 Johnny Roy
14 David Wright
18 David Cully
19 Johnny Cleary

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