Match report – Ards Rgrs 4 v Lis.Distillery 0 – 23/07/22
Ards Rangers v Lisburn Distillery (Pre-Season Friendly) – Saturday 23rd July 2022
Pre-season continued for Lisburn Distillery on Saturday at Drome Park against an Ards Rangers side that featured Whites League Cup winner, Philip Simpson.
There were a number of changes to the Whites side that had beaten Kilmore Rec the previous week, this perhaps showed, as it was the home side who got off to the better start.
The first goal of the game came in the 2nd minute when the returning Aaron Smyth was judged to have pulled a home attacker down inside the box and the referee pointed at the spot, though the incident appeared to have taken place outside the 18-yard box. The Rangers player stepped up to confidently dispatch past Ethan Carry from 12 yards.
After going behind Barry Johnston’s side had a couple of sights at goal, firstly the home ‘keeper was forced into a save following an attack down the right and then a free kick from the same flank was just inches too high for Johnny Angus, though the whistle had already blown anyway.
It was the home side who would add to their lead twice more by the half hour mark, firstly a cross from the right was finished off with a strike from close range and then a looping corner seemed to catch Carry off guard and allowed a Rangers player to easily nod the ball home.
The Rangers ‘keeper made a rare save in the 35th minute denying one of the games trialists and from the resulting corner an Angus effort was blocked by a defender.
Half-time: Ards Rangers 3-0 Lisburn Distillery
The second 45 got off to a bad start for Johnston’s men as Ards Rangers added their fourth goal of the game in the 49th minute when Carry was unable to fully punch the ball away from a corner and the ball again ended up in the back of the net.
Carry went some way towards making amends just over five minutes later, when Rangers beat the offside trap but the stopper stood his ground to block the shot and the danger was eventually cleared.
With just over 20 minutes still to go Distillery had the ball in the back of the net but the referee had already blown for offside and Whites substitutes Bobby Robinson and Lewis Higginson forced saves from the opposition ‘keeper and Jourdan Shearer could only find the side netting from a right hand cross.
In between all of this Ards Rangers almost added a fifth goal to their tally when they quickly countered after a corner was cleared but the attacker could not finish off an inviting cross from the left.
When the final whistle blew, it marked a bad day at the office for Distillery but there is still plenty of time to put things right before the season starts for real in just under two weeks.
Full-time: Ards Rangers 4-0 Lisburn Distillery
Report by Cameron Moore
