Ballinamallard 0-1 Linfield

Linfield held onto their 100% start to the campaign with this one-goal defeat of Ballinamallard United at Ferney Park.

After a quiet opening the first real effort of note arrived midway through the first half when an Andrew Waterworth looping header came back off the angle between post and crossbar before being cleared to safety.

At the other end the Mallards broke, almost seizing the advantage themselves when a fierce Aaron Patterson drive flew just past the right-hand post.

Waterworth thought he had given the visitors the lead a short time later when he had the ball in the net only for his 'goal' to fall foul of the offside rule.

Linfield upped the tempo after the break with Mark Clarke firing just over after being teed up by Guy Bates.

Then, a short time later, Aaron Burns saw a half-volley scrambled away before, on 61 minutes, Sean Ward opened the scoring with a low, hard 25 yard drive beyond Alvin Rouse into the bottom right corner.

Clarke might have added a second later in the game with a low free-kick which Rouse did well to turn around a post while Bates also came close with a header from Jamie Mulgrew's cross.

Report from www.nifootballleague.com