Dean Smith says Loughgall's star man Benji Magee is reaping rewards of hard work after netting 15th Premiership goal of the season against Linfield

The 21-year-old netted his 15th Premiership goal of the campaign in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Linfield and was a constant threat for the Villagers, flashing a shot just wide of Chris Johns’ post in the first-half and produced a number of magical driving runs.

Magee has undoubtedly been the breakout star of this season with only Cliftonville striker Ben Wilson (17) able to boast a better top-flight return, marking a meteoric rise for a player who appeared for Ards’ reserve team as recently as April 2022 before making the move to Loughgall that summer, netting seven times as Smith’s side lifted the Championship title.

The former Glentoran forward has struck five times in his last four matches across competitions in a run that has brought three victories for the County Armagh outfit.

"He causes problems with his pace and he's so direct,” said Smith. “Any time he got the ball today he caused issues or something came from it.

"We've been using him on the inside right and it's a bit of a free role where we let him roam. You can see today he's popped up with another goal, which comes from a deflection but he's definitely claiming it!

"It's through hard work. There's no secret or magic potion - he works tremendously hard down on the training pitch on Tuesday and Thursday, does his own work away from it like all the boys do and he's getting his just rewards.”

While ultimately disappointed with the result, Smith was full of praise for his players as they went toe-to-toe with the league leaders.

"I think we pushed a very good Linfield team all the way and on a different day we maybe get something from the game,” he added. "I thought it was a really close encounter and not much between the teams on the day.

"Linfield came out really strong in the second-half and for the first five or 10 minutes their set-piece delivery was on the money and we were having to deal with a lot.

"We're disappointed with the two goals which come from soft free-kicks, especially the second one. We don't deal with it the way we'd been dealing all game with them and it's a decent strike after that."