Loughgall 2 - 0 Portstewart

At a windswept Lakeview Park, Loughgall were made to fight for all three points by a battling Portstewart side.
In the only change since the success over Newington Captain Darragh Peden was sidelined with the flu and he was replaced by midfielder Brian Adair.  Neil Alderdice moved to central defence to partner Alan Murphy and Andy Smith relocated to right back allowing Adair into his customary central midfield position.
The first half saw few clear cut chances being created for either side however Loughgall had the ball into the net on 6 minutes when Alan Murphy’s flick-on was touched home by striker Andy Brown however he was in an offside position.
Substitute Paul Baron grabbed the opener two minutes after the interval when Murphy outjumped ‘keeper Matthew McGraw to Glenn Waddell’s free kick and striker Baron had the simple task of nodding the ball home into the empty net.  The lead was almost increased on 57 minutes however Murphy directed his header from Moffatt’s cross wide of the goals.  On the hour mark Dean Smith controlled Baron’s flick-on and lobbed goalkeeper McGraw from 40 yards however his effort landed just onto the roof of the net.
With 10 minutes remaining Baron delivered a great cross to the back post where Ryan Moffatt headed across goal to Dean Smith however the striker failed to connect.
Portstewart nearly equalised on minute later when Ian Todd forced ‘keeper Marc Robinson into a smart low save following a loose pass in the home defence.
With two minutes remaining a forward ball was bizarrely left by the Portstewart defence and Dean Smith pounced upon it to sidefooted home to clinch the win.

Loughgall: M Robinson, Waddell, A Smith, Alderdice, Murphy, Herron, Moffatt (Walker 89m), Adair, Brown (Baron 45m), Lavery (Uprichard 89m), D Smith.  Subs not used: Allen, Nesbitt.

Portstewart: McGraw, Rushe, Duggan, Smith, Whiteside, Moffett, Cheuk (Peden 77m), Gaston (Tatlor 89m), Kleczkowski, I Todd, McAllister.  Subs not used: A Todd, Quinn.

Referee: Peter McGrath (Newtonabbey)