Hot shot striker Liam Boyce scores a stunner to help the Reds win 4-2 over Ards

IT was a cracking opening to the 2013/2014 Danske Bank Irish Premier League.

There were two sendings off, one game had nine goals, and there were three penalties in the first six games.

And reigning league champions Cliftonville kept up their winning ways by beating new boys Ards FC in a real baptism of fire for the Co Down club.

The other promoted side also got off to a losing start.

Warrenpoint lost at home 3-2 to Dungannon Swifts.

But the match of the afternoon was the nine-goal thriller fest at the Ballymena Showgrounds.

Glenavon spanked Ballymena 4-0 at half time but the match ended up the Lurgan Blues running out 6-3 winners.

In Co Fermanagh, Ballinamallard Utd beat last season’s league runner ups Crusaders.

But the game was marred when Mallards’s goal scorer Andy Crawford and Colin Coates were sent off in the 81st minute.

At the Oval, financially struggling Glentoran had a 1-1 score draw with Coleraine.

And at Shamrock Park, Linfield could only manage a 1-1 draw with Portadown after ‘Pistol’ Pete Thompson put the Blues in front only to be robbed of the three points with a Portadown penalty on 88 minutes.

At Solitude, last season’s Irish league champions secured their first three points of the season by beating newcomer’s Ards 4-2.

And it was those two strikers, Joe Gormely and Liam Boyce, who were back on goal scoring form, securing the points with two goals each.

Boyce scored the best goal of the day with a spectacular piece of brilliance that has proved him worth of last season’s top goal scorer.

It’s already a contender for goal of the season!

FULL TIME RESULTS:

BALLINAMALLARD UTD 1 (Crawford 13, s/o 81) V CRUSADERS 0 (Coates s/o 81)

BALLYMENA UTD 3 (Lowry 46, Thompson 65, Taylor 88) V GLENAVON 6 (Bates 7 & 26, Murphy 30, Farren 34 & 81, McGrory 86)

CLIFTONVILLE 4 (Gormley 10 & 20, Boyce 65 & 73) V ARDS 2 (Roy 52, McDowell 77)

GLENTORAN 1 (O’Hanlon pen 25) V COLERAINE 1 (Jennings 72)

PORTADOWN 1 (Murray pen 88) LINFIELD 1 (Thompson 53)

WARRENPOINT TOWN 2 (Cairns 34, Bagnell 85) V DUNGANNON SWIFTS 3 (Hazley pen 45 & 87, McCullough 51)