Football: SWEENEY SWOOP IS A BIT OF ALL WRIGHT

VINCENT Sweeney delighted Ballymena United manager Tommy Wright with a superb winning goal against Armagh City at Holm Park.

The Sky Blues striker fired home a 71st-minute winner to give his team a deserved victory over a lacklustre City side.

"It was a brilliant goal by Sweeney," beamed the delighted Ballymena boss.

"Along with Rory Hamill, he had caused the Armagh defence all sorts of trouble and he deserved the goal.

"After last week's disappointing result away to Loughgall, we showed good character and the performance was worthy of the result."

In a goalless first half, Ballymena dominated and were the more creative in attack.

"And had City keeper Paul Rice not been on top of his game Colin Malone's team could easilyhave been two in arrears at the break. He denied both Hamill and Sweeney.

The breakthrough finally came in the 71st minute, when a mistake by defender Davy Fairclough allowed Sweeney to strike a low shot from 20 yards past Rice at full stretch.

City boss Malone said: "We lacked any commitment throughout the 90 minutes and were lucky not to have been beaten by a much larger margin. It's a wake-up call.

"We must win our home games if we are to survive."

RATINGS

ARMAGH CITY: Rice 7, Carlisle 6, Turkington 6, Cowan 7, McSorley 6, Lavery 5, Hawthorne 6, Reilly 6, Ward 6, Meehan 5.

BALLYMENA UNITED: McFrederick, 6, Collier, 6, McClean 6, Watson 7, Watson 7, Smyth 8, Rosbotham 6, Haveron 6, Hamill 7, Sweeney 7, King 8.

REFEREE D McGarvey 7.

Copyright 2005 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.