Loughgall 1
Ballymena United 0
Friendly

Match Report

BALLYMENA United lost narrowly to a late Loughgall goal today in a pre-season friendly.

The opening 10 minutes of the game seen some nice possession by the Sky Blues, but it was nearly 15 minutes before the first real chance of a goal, Kevin Braniff bringing an easy save from the Loughgall keeper. Within the next 10 minutes Loughgall had two chances of their own, going close to scoring from a 1 on 1 and forcing Ross Glendinning into a great save to keep the scores level a few minutes later.

There wasn't much of note for the rest of the half, and the teams went in 0-0 at half-time. Tim Allen, Emmet Friars and Conor McCloskey all came on after the break to replace Ross Glendinning, Johnny Flynn and Willie Faulkner.

The first real action of the second half seen Joe McKinney took out in the box, but the referee waved the penalty appeals away.

71 minutes seen a raft of subs, Matthew Shevlin, Eoin Kane, Caolan Loughran, Neil Lowry and Fra McCaffrey coming on to replace Kyle Owens, Leroy Millar, Joe McKinney, Cathair Friel and Kevin Braniff.

Loughgall grabbed the winning goal through Denver Taggart in the 79th minute after some hesitant defending by United, but overall it was a good workout prior to our game later in the week.

Match report written by Paul Irwin