Banbridge Town 4
BANBRIDGE Town stunned Ladbrokes.com Championship 1 leaders Donegal Celtic on Saturday with a marvellous win in West Belfast.
The win has pushed Banbridge into their highest league position of the season – seventh – and drops C
eltic down to third place, two points behind new pace setters Loughgall.
And the win – which is actually only Celtic’s second loss of the league campaign - came as the Belfast side made a comedy of errors.
DC went in front after 15 minutes through Stephen O’Neill but Town pulled level as Dale Malone, The Town’s star man on the day, threaded a ball to Marc Whitla which split the defence in half and giving the striker the perfect opportunity to score as he drilled the ball past Declan Brown.
That goal marks Whitla’s return to action after the big striker had missed most of the second half of last season and the early part of this one due to injury.
The Town went in front just before the interval as Brown committed himself to Malone’s cross, however he completely misjudged the ball and veteran striker Timmy Grant was on hand to put the ball into the onion bag from close range.
Brown was again at fault for goal number three on 55 minutes. This time he came to collect a lobbed free kick from Malone, dropped the ball between his legs and it trickled over the goal line to make the score 3-1 in Banbridge’s favour.
One time Town target Peter Kennedy supplied the cross for Celtic’s second goal which was headed home by Liam Bradley, giving the hosts a glimmer of hope.
But the Town secured all three points when Celtic defender Thomas Lambe was sent off after 84 minutes and Mark Teggart made it 4-2 with a cool finish from the penalty spot.
