Ballymacash Rangers lose out as Bangor takes pole position

Ballymacash started quickly and won a free kick early on which ended up coming to nothing.

Adam Neale nodded Bangor in front after Ballymacash failed to deal with a long ball forward from the midfield.

If that opening goal for Bangor spelled bad news for Rangers, there was still worse to come. With fourteen minutes played, Dylan Davidson was shown a straight red card for a tackle on Cliftonville loanee Seanna Foster.

The decision is one that has been greatly debated in the aftermath of the game, with a Northern Ireland Football League video capturing the tackle, leaving much of the general public feeling Davidson was hard done by.

A goal down and a man down against a good Bangor side, Ballymacash had it all to do. However, it was Ballymacash who were presented with a golden opportunity to level things up. Bangor defender Ryan Arthur upended Jack Smith in the Bangor box and referee Niall Devlin duly pointed to the spot.

It was Smith who stepped up to take the penalty but he was denied by a good save by Taylor who dove to his left to parry the ball away from goal.

The remainder of the game was played out rather tentatively, with Bangor keeping good possession of the ball without creating an awful lot of chances against a Ballymacash side needing to work twice as hard with a man deficit.

As Ballymacash pushed men forward late on in the hope of an equaliser, Bangor struck. A good ball in by Neale was met by the head of the prolific Ben Arthur, whose header gave Neeson little chance in the Ballymacash goal.

As the final whistle blew, a large roar went up from the Bangor support. They, much like their Ballymacash counterparts, knew that the win left Bangor in pole position to win the Premier Intermediate League.

A fourth Ballymacash Rangers v Bangor instalment is still to come - both sides have to meet again in the split fixtures, with Ballymacash now wary of both Queens and Limavady United coming close behind them in the race for the second placed playoff spot.