On Saturday the Star travelled to Seymore hill for a league fixture with Derriaghy at Seycon park. After dropping two valuable points away to Ardglass last week Eamon Hawkin's men knew they had to take all the three points from this difficult fixture.

In the opening stages of the game Star showed they where up for the challenge as Braniff and Reid where dominating the midfield battle. Up front the striking duo of Brown and Devenny where causing all sorts of problems as the Derriaghy deffence could not cope with Devenny's flick on's and Brown's running of the ball.

The Star where dealt a massive blow in the 20th minute when young defender Sean McAuley twisted his knee whilst going for a ball and he had to be replaced by Brendan Mooney. Paul Brown had the Stars best chance on the half hour mark when he went through one on one with the keeper but placed his shot wide of the post. Derriaghy also had an opportunity to take the lead just before half time but O'Dwyre in goal pulled off a pin point save to keep the sides level at the interval.

H/T 0-0

With a slight breeze behind them the Star dominated the early stages of the second half, McKervey in particular was causing the home side all sorts of problems with his in swinging corners and his dangerous left foot crosses. In the 63rd minute the Stars pressure finally paid of when Braniff found Reid out wide and the little midfielders cross was turned in by Mark Mooney to make it 1-0. Derriaghy responded well and put the Star under some real pressure but strong defending from Seamy Nellis and Sean O'Reilly kept the home side at bay. In the 72nd minute the Star killed the game off with a classic counter attack when O'Reilly's through ball found Devenny and the big hit man made no mistake with the finish slotting the ball home to double the Stars advantage.

Clarke and Doran replaced Keenan and Mooney as the Star seen out the final stages of the game for an impressive win. This result leaves the Star level at the top of 2A with Shankill with seven games to go. Next week the Star entertain 1B outfit Lisburn Rangers in the last 16 of the Clarence cup.

TEAM: O'Dwyre  Nellis  Keenan  O'Reilly  McAuley  M Mooney  McKervey  Reid  Braniff  Devenny  Brown  SUBS: B Mooney  Clarke  Doran