Loughshinny United moved 9 clear of Derry Rovers & Rivervalley Rangers this morning and took advantage of a lot of games in the league falling victim to the weather the last few nights. Portmarnock were the visitors this morning to a windy Loughshinny Park and fell behind early on as Cian Ensors ball into Conor O'Neill in the box was taken down well by O'Neill but the defender got back goalside and but the midfielder got his head up and found Rory O'Connor at the edge of the box who slotted past the defenders and keeper with his left foot into the corner. O'Connor had the ball in the net again for a second time but the ref blew offside as a scramble in the box landed to O'Neill who scuffed an effort into the middle of the goal and O'Connor flicked it in but he was behind the keeper at the time of the shot. The game went a bit quiet after that for a while Evan Spencer shooting from range over the bar and Ensor firing one wide also. Loughshinny started inviting pressure from the visitors by giving away a lot of silly free kicks in their own half and one of which resulted in Matthew Wade being caught out by the gust as the ball came in and it fell to a portmarnock player who punished them to make it 1-1. O'Connor went through on goal and beat the defender who handled the ball and after taking his shot which the keeper saved the ref brought it back for a penalty. O'Connor stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way and put it into the right corner. Mark Rodgers put in a super tackle at the end of the first half, he won the ball clean and the ref punished the follow through and gave him a card which was very harsh from a great strong tackle. Just before the half time whistle a neat bit of play on the left ended with Josh Hughes picking out O'Connor who cushioned a header into O'Neill but he couldnt quite get enough on his effort with the keeper on close hand to gather the ball.HT 2-1 Loughshinny upped the gears in the 2nd half and should have went 3-1 up when a beautiful Ensor cross found O'Connor who met it with a super diving header which found the top corner but the ref blew his whistle again to wrongfully deny a great goal. Loughshinny pressed again and finally got their third and O'Connor completed his hat trick when Ross Connell found space on the right and cracked an effort towards goal but the Portmarnock keeper made a great save but could only parry it to O'Connor who tried his best to miss with a effort which hit the crossbar and the post before going in. O'Neill again had an effort saved by the busy Portmarnock keeper down low to his left at the near post which gave Loughshinny a corner. Connell a few minutes later played a great ball through for Ensor who made a great run after Loughshinny hit Portmarnock on the counter from their corner and made them pay by cutting back I'm on his left and smashing a shot low past the keeper. 7 from 7 in the league and move 9 points clear of the chasing pack with a few teams with games in hand look to close it again. Full Time Loughshinny 4 Portmarnock 1
