COFFS City United defeated the Bellingen Bats 3-1 to go six points clear in the Coastal Premier League.

The Lions bombarded Bellingen with straight balls through the middle and crosses from attacking wingers Chris Dooley and Habib Noorani.

After fifteen minutes the Lions opened the scoring when Noorani side-footed the ball to Nick Mallett who crisply slotted into the bottom corner past the unsighted goalkeeper.

Ten minutes later Martin Kelleher added a second when he won the ball on the half way line and ran the length of the pitch, dribbled past the goalkeeper and dinked the ball over the line to double the lead.

Bellingen fought back in the second half and pulled a goal back with ten minutes to go.

The animated supporters set the scene for a derby battle which Lions coach Glen Williams had anticipated.

“It was a tough match, it’s always a tough match against those guys, we were expecting a battle,” he said.

“I think we deserved to be 2-0 up at half time but we always knew they would fight back in the second half, they don’t give up, that’s their nature.”

“Their supporters always travel with them and you can hear them from the sidelines.”

Whilst the Lions were putting together one-two passes it’s been a challenging time for coaches given the pitches have been closed for training.

“It’s hard to work at combinations at training because there’s no fields, we’re just looking for one-twos and let the ball do work.

“Next week we travel down to Port Macquarie to face Port United, that’s always a tough trip, we’re just excited to be back playing again.”

The Lions are in a rich vein of form, winning all seven of their first round matches to go six points ahead at the top of the Coastal Premier League.

“We’re up to six wins now so we need to keep on top of the competition and stay at the top of the table,” concluded Williams.

By David WIGLEY