2021-11-13 Ballymena 0 Ards 2 Premier League Women

We are currently carrying out a necessary behind-the-scenes upgrade to how images are stored and delivered on The Front Row Union Sports. With over 770,000 images on the site, we are moving our entire image library to a dedicated cloud storage service. This means images will load faster for you, regardless of where you are in the world, and the site will be more reliable overall.

As we are working on three separate versions of images during the offload process, the site cache sometimes struggles to keep up with which version to display and occasionally post grid images or complete galleries may fail to appear. This is a temporary side effect of the migration process — the image exists and is safe, it is simply in the process of being moved to its new home and identified as being there. A refresh of the page will usually bring them back, however, if it does not please contact john@thefrontrowunion.com stating clearly the post address and we will restore it as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes and appreciate your patience.

We expect the bulk of the image migration to be completed by the end of June 2026, with a fully upgraded version of the site ready to launch in August 2026. Once that work is done, the site will be noticeably faster, images will load more reliably, and you will not see any further disruption of this kind. Thank you for your continued support of The Front Row Union Sports.

The first two quarters were end to end action with Ards just getting the better of their opponents.

Report and pictures by Cyril Boyd Photography

Midway through the first period , the visitor’s No 13 was on the end of a cross to the far post to give Ards the lead with a fine finish. Ballymena tried to react and gained a couple of penalty corners but the visiting defence held firm.

Ards Frankie Brown successfully tests out her new stick with a brace against Ballymena

Ards striker Brown was again on target in the second period to increase the visitors lead. Ballymena now grew into the game and only fine goalkeeping by the visitors kept out home team captain when she broke through one on one with the keeper. So it remained two nil to the visitors at half time.

Ards keeper Naomi McKnight gets in ahead of Ballymena captain Claire Gillespie in an exciting match at Ballymena Academy.

The final two quarters were evenly contested with each defence tested and the goalkeepers proving their worth.

Ballymena’s keeper blocked Brown from achieving her hattrick on at least two occasions and her opposite number was doing the same at the other end.

It was a good open competition but without any further goals so Ards came away with the points on this day.

Gallery Below

Corrections

Drop us a note below if there are any corrections required in this article.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨