Benji Magee hat trick against Newry City sees Loughgall move 10 points clear of the drop zone

Loughgall 3 Newry City 1

Benji Magee scored three for Loughgall against Newry City

Ben Magee was on fire on Saturday afternoon, and his second half hat trick saw Loughgall claim a 3-1 win over Newry, which pushes them 10 points clear of the bottom two.

Following the win, Loughgall boss Dean Smith praised his goalscoring winger, but wouldn’t be drawn into a conversation regarding his side’s position in the table.

“Benji’s a player who excites everybody, every time he touches the ball,” said Smith.

“His first two finishes were fantastic. For the third one, he gets a wee bit of luck, but I think he deserved the luck.

“We can’t look at the table. Look at today’s results including Ballymena defeating Coleraine. We just have to concentrate on ourselves and play to the cliché of ‘one game at a time’.”

Newry were the better of the two sides in the first half, but were unable to open the scoring, as Adam Salley headed over from close range, before Loughgall shot stopper Beraat Turker was twice called into action to make outstanding saves.

Lorcan Forde pinged a long ball square into Carroll’s chest on the edge of the box, and his volleyed effort was heading for the bottom corner, but Turker got down at full stretch to keep it out.

Then late change Georgie Poynton called Turker into action with another low drive, but once again the ‘keeper got down and got his fingertips to the shot.

In between those saves came Loughgall’s best chance of the first half, as Luke Cartwright’s long throw-in was flicked on by Ferris and directed towards goal by Tiernan Kelly, but his header went just inches over the bar.

After a goalless first half, things burst into life three minutes after the restart, as Magee turned his way past Noel Healy down