Evan Tweed strike seals Institute victory over Ballinamallard

Institute 1

Ballinamallard 0

Evan Tweed’s first-half free-kick moved Institute to within just one point of the top six in what was a hugely significant win for Kevin Deery’s team at the Brandywell on Saturday.

With just one point separating the teams before kick-off, this game was viewed as something as a six-pointer, with neither in the ideal position towards the wrong end of the NIFL Championship. But things can change quickly in this division, and now, with two wins in the last two weeks, ‘Stute are looking up instead of down and the possibility of breaking into the to six ahead of the upcoming split.

“It was a significant win, the reason being because we’re a point behind Ards now and we have games in hand over a few around us,” Deery said afterwards. “

It has been a really hard season for us, in terms of key personnel leaving the club. We’ve even lost a few today which will be a really hard void to fill, so we just have to stay positive. It’s our first clean sheet in a long time, I think December, so I’m glad to see that.

“They were two completely different halves. In the first half we were very good and we could have been two or three up. In the second half we had to dig in more but on the counter attack we looked dangerous. We’ll take the three points and concentrate on Bangor next week now.”

It was a win which spoke as much about the character of the ‘Stute players as much as anything else, as the home side essentially finished the game with nine men, with goal-scorer Tweed and substitute Benny McLaughlin both clearly injured. With Ballinamallard – who had former ‘Stute manager Brian Donaghy among their coaching staff – pushing hard, it was a tense finish to the game to say the least.

Lucky

Ballinamallard were lucky to survive just eight minutes into Saturday’s game when Caoimhin Porter got a second chance after a poor corner, and his cross found Evan Tweed running in at the near post. Tweed opted to flick it past Patrick McGarvey and right across the face pf goal where Berti Diau tried to force it over the line but the goalkeeper pounced on the ball much to his team’s relief.

‘Stute suffered a blow just 11 minutes in when they lost influential defender Shane Boyle to injury, the centre-half replaced by Caoimhin Crossan.

A quiet first half got the kick it needed just after the half hour with ‘Stute taking the lead. Jamie Dunne fouled Padraig Lynch 20 yads from goal, and Evan Tweed tried his luck by shooting to the goalkeeper’s side, his low effort flying past the ball to nestle into the bottom corner.

The lead could well have been short-lived had Fintan Doherty not come to ‘Stute’s record less than 60 seconds later, with the ‘Stute goalkeeper denying Darragh Byrne from close range. The response to falling behind was a good one from Ballinamallard and they would surely have equalised when Tiarnan Campbell crossed low for Joshua McIlwaine, but his goal-bound effort was brilliantly blocked by Berti Diau.

Half Time 1-0

‘Stute were onto the attack quickly in the second half and McGarvey had to be alert to save from Aidan Hegarty, whose shot through a crowded penalty area was heading for the bottom corner until the goalkeeper stuck out his right foot to turn it away.

Kevin Deery then had to rejig his defence for the second time in the game when substitute Caoimhin Crossan seemed to suffer a hamstring injury when clearing the ball for a corner, which meant that Conor Quigley had to move into centre-half with Stephen Doherty dropping into left full-back.

Bangor were becoming more insistent with time running out, with ‘Stute under real pressure for the first time in the game. The visitor should have levelled with just over five minutes remining when Aaron Harkin’s free-kick went all the way to the back post, falling perfectly for Richard Johnston, but the defender’s side-foot finish just missed the target with Doherty beaten.

‘Stute players were falling like flies at this stage, with both Benny McLaughlin and Evan Tweed playing with injuries, with ‘Stute unable to make any further substitutions.