After a short rest last weekend the fifths were looking to extend their unbeaten run to six games in a tough derby match against North Down at home on Saturday.

Bangor wasted no time in getting on the score sheet with Simon Harper netting his first goal of the afternoon after a beautifully threaded pass from midfield maestro Paul Scott.

With the away team startled Tim Cook, the fifths answer to Claude Makelele, beat his man and set Harper up who rifled in his second of the afternoon.

After only 17 minutes the home side made it 3-0 when Bob Espey scored and compounded the misery of the away side. Espey then got his second of the day to make it 4-0 and put the game beyond reasonable doubt.

Then Bangor seemed to relax, and North Down piled on the pressure. Warren Reid at right back used his physical presence to make sure nothing came of their attacks down his side. Matty Neill-McCready was also playing well on the left and was always pushing forward, but this caused a problem towards the end of the first half when North Down broke down the left and their forward smashed the ball towards the top corner, but was deflected wide by Mark Russell in the home goal.

The second half was another goal-fest with Paul Scott breaking through the North Down defence to score his his first of the season and Ryan Garland scoring from a short corner shortly after to make it 6-0.

North Down then pulled one back after a goalkeeping blunder from Russell saw him clear the ball to a North Down forward who tucked the ball away into the bottom left corner to make it 6-1. North Down were perhaps looking like the better team at times but Bangor were passing the ball superbly and it made life difficult for the travelling side.

From the back Alan Stevenson was boringly flawless and hopefully plays the same next week. Mike Ferguson didn’t get on the score sheet but held the ball up well until he had to go off injured.

Harper got his hat-trick to make it 7-1 and Neill-McCready scored from the flick spot to increase the score to 8-1, and that's how it finished. Credit to John Mitchell who played in an unorthodox position but got a few assists to his name and Simon Murray put in an excellent display.

It was a strange game, but 8-1 score line boosts morale, especially with four away trips in a row, including a lovely trip to Donegal to play Raphoe in two weeks.

Man of the Match was Warren Reid who was brilliant, linked up well with right midfield and defended solidly, which frustrated North Down and thanks to Noel Wishart who umpired.