Wakehurst record excellent win over league leaders

The Ballymena side remain well on course to meet Gregg’s pre-season objective of finishing in the top six after notching their fourth successive victory in a 1-0 midweek win over leaders Knockbreda.

“We were delighted with the result - it was a real fillip for us,” Gregg told Times Sport.

“I’m not surprised at the fact we beat Knockbreda because I have always insisted that the ability is there within the squad - my continual complaint is that we don’t apply it regularly enough.

“We were excellent in all areas of the pitch and we were pleased to keep a clean sheet because Knockbreda have shown how much firepower they have this season.

“We took a lot of positives out of that game and now I want the players to have a real go at finishing the season strongly.

“The fact our match at Ballyclare was off on Saturday was maybe a blessing in disguise because we would probably have been without four or maybe five players due to injury and unavailability.

“Hopefully we will have some of those players back again for this Saturday when we go to Banbridge Town,” added Gregg.

Wakehurst started strongly against Knockbreda forcing three corner in the opening five minutes and Aaron Lemon was inches off getting a vital touch to Conor Gregg’s driven ball across the 6-yard box on 15 minutes, while Jason Paul’s header from a Mark Crawford cross was just wide of the upright.

On the half-hour mark good approach work from Gregg and Jordan Lemon set up an opportunity for Aaron Lemon and his first-time shot from the edge of the box brought a good save from Cairnduff.

The home defence came under their first spell of pressure at the start of the second half and a long throw, 5 minutes in, caused real panic as the ball ricocheted around the 6-yard box and it took a tremendous reflex save from Marc Maybin to prevent Chines giving his team the lead.

Substitute Steven McIlroy’s first touch almost broke the deadlock, his 20 yard strike catching Cairnduff off guard and he could only palm away his strike but fortunately for the keeper, no Wakehurst player had followed up and Jim McMenamin was able to hack the ball clear.

But the winner followed soon after when a simple long ball from Laughlin was headed on by Paul and left Conor Gregg one on one with the keeper and he cheekily lifted the ball over Cairnduff before passing it into the empty net for yet another goal to add to his tally this season.

Wakehurst: M Maybin, P Alexander, R Colville, D Stevenson, R Culbertson, J Lemon, A Laughlin, M Crawford, A Lemon, C Gregg, J Paul. Subs: L McCaughern, S McIlroy, S McKinney, S Fletcher, D Parker.