Antrim 5ths 3-5 Bangor 6ths

VALUABLE AWAY WIN FOR BANGOR

The sixths travelled to Upper Malone on Friday night for a tough game with Instonians and Bangor managed to come out on top of an eight goal thriller.
Bangor seemed up for the game from the start and took the match to Instonians. This paid off when Simon Harper received the ball on the by-line and cheekily flicked it past the Instonians goalkeeper who looked shocked that it went in.
Bangor didn't stop there and their sustained pressure led to Simon Harper scoring his second goal of the night and his 50th for the club. Then Bangor sat back and let the home side attacked, and if not for some good defending by Phil Campbell, Ryan Agnew and Duncan Morris, the visitors would have conceded just after going two in front.
Instonians didn't stop there, and their relentless pressure nearly paid off when their forward lost his man, and smashed a shot towards the Bangor goal, only for goalkeeper Mark Russell to turn it away at the last second. Bangor went in at half-time leading 2-0.
After a stern team-talk Bangor went out in the second half to add to their tally and not sit back and defend. Although the midfield of Simon Murray, Bob Espie and Craig McDowell were supplying the forwards with some great passes, the front men couldn't capitalise.
Then the home side did what they threatened to do for most of the game, drag themselves back into the match. After their forward miss-hit his shot twice he didn't miss the third time and it was 2-1 to Instonians. Game on.
This seemed to waken Bangor up, and when they won a short corner, Duncan Morris headed up the pitch to take it. This clearly rattled the Instonians players, and when Duncan received the ball he powered it into the goal to make it 3-1.
Then Michael J. Ferguson made it 4-1 after some neat passing between himself and Callum Togneri, opened up tonnes of space that allowed Michael time to beat the goalkeeper with aplomb. Then he made it 5-1 soon after and Bangor were cruising.
Instonians didn't give up and soon made it 5-2, and then made it 5-3 with what turned out to be the last touch of the game.  Bangor secured another win that sees them claw their way up the table and hot on the heals of the top five. Thanks to John Mitchell for umpiring. Man of the Match was midfield maestro Simon Murray