A super all round team performance saw us beat second placed St. Marys 2 : 0 to take their second spot from them.
We started the game in usual style and took the game straight to St. Marys and within the first 10 minutes should have been two up when Jack Patterson twice found himself one on one with the keeper only to hit his first shot straight at the keeper and his second went just wide of the post but that was only letting St. Marys know that he meant business and on the 15th minute Jack had another shot saved by the keeper low to his right hand post but spilled it and Jack was there to put the rebound into the net to put Ards 1 : 0 up. St. Marys did try to make a game off it put found the Ards defence hard to break down and when they did they found Jai Sykes in the Ards goal in great form too. More chances came from Ards with Andrew Graham coming close and also his Twin Brother also saw a shot saved by the St. Marys keeper. Matthew Guest saw his free kick go just over the cross bar but in the 31st minute a super bit of team football would double the score when Bradley McCourt broke up a St. Marys attack surged forward to the half way line and passed the ball to Reece Atkinson, Reece turn on the ball and fed the ball out to the left wing to Matthew Guest who skipped past the right back and sent over a super cross for Stuart Graham to run on to and volley it into the back of the net to make it 2 : 0 to Ards.
Half Time : 2 . 0
The second half started brightly with Ards again on the front foot but just could find the net again and St. Marys did try and get something out off the game but found Jai Sykes well in control off his goal their best chances came when they manage to get into our box and hit a shot that Jai got down to his right and post to save but couldn’t hold it and as the striker came in for the rebound Jai was to quick as he got up and pounced on the ball to stop the striker score, great double save, the other chance was when a long range shot was heading straight for the top left hand corner but Jai pulled off another great save by getting up with both hands and tipping over for a corner. This was probable the best ever we have defended corner kicks as we never once throughout the match failed to meet the ball first and that stifled St. Mary’s chances.
Manager’s comments: Well done to everyone this was a great team effort and well deserved second place now we need to keep playing like this and push for the top.
