Ards faced eleventh placed PSNI at the Bangor Fuels Arena. The away side have only gained one point in the last five games while Ards have gained eight from the same amount. In the opening minutes of the first half Sean Green’s free kick gave Mark Anderson a good opportunity, however, his header was just wide of the left hand post saving Ards from early embarrasment. The home side opened the scoring in the 6th minute after lovely work from Michael McLellan and Ben Cushnie resulted in Cushnie’s effort from close range finding the back of the net, 1-0. Ards nearly doubled their lead on the half hour when Johnny Taylor’s header was goal bound however it was denied by Daniele Di Giorgio to keep the score at 1-0. However 6 minutes before the break it was 2-0 when a lovely ball from Cushnie was followed up by McLellans header which found the bottom right hand corner.
In first half injury time McLellan nearly got his second but the PSNI stopper tipped the chance away with the half ending 2-0. Early in the second half Ards got their third and final goal of the day when former PSNI player Dylan Wilson’s corner found Scott McMillan’s head and his header found the back of the net to essentially end the game as a contest..
Ards pressed for a fourth goal and Cushnie had a close range effort well saved by Di Giorgio at the expense of a corner.
In the closing stages lovely work from Wilson gave substitute McConnell a good opportunity however he couldn’t keep his shot on target and the game ended 3-0. Three points for Ards means they now have 22 points and are fifth in the league, although defeat for Loughgall and a draw for Portadown against Queens mean they made up a little ground on the front two. Next up on Saturday 2nd November is Queens at the DUB, with a 2.00 p.m. kick off.
Yellow cards- TJ Murray.