PLAYR-FIT Teamwear Championship.
Knockbreda vs Ards.
Seaview.
Tuesday April 9th at 8-00 p.m.
Ards play the first of five crucial post-split fixtures when they travel the short distance to take on almost doomed Knockbreda. The home side sit in the relegation place with just 14 points from their 33 games so far and find themselves 11 points behind Dergview, who are currently in the relegation play-off place, and 15 points behind Ards who sit nervously in tenth. Mathematically Breda could still survive, if Ards were to lose their final five fixtures and Dergview were only to get three points by beating Ards, then Dergview would be relegated and it would come down to goal difference between Ards and Breda for the play-off place.
Unlikely as this may seem Breda will be giving it their all and recent results show they are in the best form of the bottom three sides. They have picked up two wins and a draw in their last four games, with 2-0 home wins over both both Ballyclare and Ballinamallard and a draw away to Newington. This equals their tally of points from the previous 29 games and compares favourably to Ards who picked up their first win since the end of November when they beat Dergview 2-0 on March 23rd. Ards of course had no match over Easter which gave time for some of the injuries to clear up, Connor Maxwell for example got some game time for the reserves recently. Eamon Scannell will miss this game as he completes the suspension imposed for his red card at Dundela but it is hoped that John Bailie will otherwise have almost a full panel to choose from for this vital fixture.
Knockbreda will have confidence given their recent improvement in form and home form particularly. They can also point out that they have taken four points off Ards this season, although they lost the opening home fixture between the two in early September, they left Bangor with a 1-1 draw on November and took all three points when they visited in February and won 2-1. Their danger man is the in-form Marcus Murphy who has netted eight times in his last eleven games for the club.
Ards have only safety to play for. They can't catch ninth placed Ballinamallard but will be determined not to slip behind Dergview. They travel to Dergview on the last day of the season and will want to at least maintain the current four point gap between the two sides going into that fixture. Dergview have of course replaced manager and ex Ards man Emmett Friars with Ivan Sproule following the recent defeat to Ards and Sproule was in charge for the 1-1 draw with Newington on Easter Tuesday. Fortunately for Ards the visitors scored a late equaliser to deprive Dergview of the win that night.
Being one of the closest away fixtures it is hoped that a good crowd will travel to support the Red and Blues in this important game.
Match Officials :-
Referee :- Mark Dillon.
1st Assistant :- Jason Maxwell.
2nd Assistant :- Matthew English.