Ards came out on top in an entertaining game against Queen’s University, at The Dub, in the Ulster Women’s Premier League on Saturday afternoon.

These pre 1pm games are great for us to pick up in our Saturday coverage and if they are all as entertaining as this one we’ll be picking up plenty more over the season.

Queen’s looked to be well on top in the first quarter with the Ards defensive paring of Alana Doyle and Emily Matchett, alongside keeper Naomi McKnight, seeing plenty of action but the teams went into the second quarter with the score at 0 – 0.

Ards got more into the game in the second quarter, but it was still somewhat against the run of play when they took the lead, about 25 minutes in, after youngster Jess Ryan found the net from a penalty corner giving Ards a 0 – 1 lead which they took into half time.

I expected a big response from Queen’s but the visitors worked hard in a physical second half and their efforts appeared to knock the composure of their hosts and Queen’s were unable to take advantage of a couple of penalty corner chances in the third quarter.

Ards closed out the final quarter fairly comfortably to remain unbeaten in the Premiership.

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