The village of Glynn near Larne was the setting for Ards Regional 4 League game on Saturday. The Down men had defeated their Antrim counterparts quite comprehensively at Hamilton Park earlier in the season, but Larne at home are a very different proposition.

Ards dominated the early exchanges and looked to be cruising with 2 well taken unconverted tries courtesy of Adam Faloon and Mark Mclean, when Larne hit back with a try of their own after some sluggish defending by the Ardsmen.

Michael Taylor restored the Ards run rate with a solid break through the centre, working his way round behind the sticks for Taylor Nutt to add the extras.

Nutt further increased the lead with a well struck penalty, 10 minutes before the break.

Uncharacteristically though, Ards then appeared to take their foot right off the gas and let the home side back into the game. Larne were quick to capitalise on this lapse of concentration and responded with 2 converted tries just before the halfway mark.

In the second half, Ards were quickest off the mark with a cracking 2nd try by Faloon. This went unconverted, but Ards looked to be firmly in the driving seat.

Disappointingly, Ards appeared to lose their focus again kicking away possession, and coupled with some shoddy defending, found themselves on the receiving end of a further 2 unconverted tries, putting their hosts into the lead 29 - 25, for the first time with about 10 minutes remaining on the clock.

Ards threw everything into the final few minutes and despite finishing very much the stronger of the two, just couldn't get over the line to bag the League points.

When looked back upon the days proceedings, this was one that definitely got away. On another day, different options might have been taken, but that's history now and we look forward to the future when we host Donegal next week.

A huge thank you to the 15 players who travelled and played for the full 80 minutes.

Thanks are also extended to Larne for hosting us, the match day official and the touchline jury.

Finally a request to all players to please make yourselves available for the remaining few games as we run down the clock on remainder of the season.