The unbeaten Mid-Ulster team that picked up a 16-1 victory and the striker who scored eight

You often hear the saying ‘get one and the floodgates will open’, which was certainly the case for the Lisburn side who currently sit top of Mid-Ulster’s Division Three.

Played at the Lisburn Leisureplex in February, The Dons opened the scoring in the 16th minute and headed into half-time 6-0 up before grabbing another 10 in the second-half with striker Chris Edgar scoring an astonishing eight times.

While delighted to continue their run towards promotion, manager Paul Millen says he "didn't actually enjoy the game" and although the scoreline could have been even bigger only for offside calls, was glad it wasn’t.

"It was strange,” he said. “I didn't even put that result on social media or website because I felt bad.

"Warren Young Men joined the Mid-Ulster last season and whilst they've struggled have always gave us a good game - maybe because it's a Lisburn derby. Usually you'd dig in, get a few goals and settle for four or five, but that Saturday was strange.

"Being from Lisburn I know their players and know they were missing quite a few and in fairness to them they put out a team. It was just one of those days. We scored our first goal and everything from there on just went in.

"I didn't actually enjoy the game. We were going into Dunnaman (their nearest title challengers) the following week and I wanted a harder game really just to keep us going.

"It worked out alright in the end (they beat Dunnaman 3-2) and I definitely didn't expect that scoreline. In fairness to them they kept going.

"We had a few disallowed but I'm actually glad it wasn't higher. We didn't put the score up on social media as we normally would because we didn't want to look like we were making fun of it.

"We play side by side on a Saturday but now with the football app everybody can see the scores and I got a few texts."

That result followed previous high-scoring affairs where The Dons defeated Dungannon Rovers 9-2 and they put seven past FC United Lisburn, who provide the opposition again this weekend.

They’ve been able to build on a solid 2021/22 campaign by bringing in the likes of Chris Edgar and Marc Smyth – the brother of Northern Ireland international, Paul – and Millen jokes they may have to use their connections to secure a loan deal for the striker in their title bid.

"We will try and get him on a loan deal maybe!" he laughs. “We wind Marc up every now and again but nothing bad - just little things like ‘can we not get Paul over for a game at the end of the season?’"

The Dons have always played in the bottom tier of Mid-Ulster football but this season provides a prime opportunity for their first promotion – and the chance to do it in style.

They are unbeaten through 14 league matches (13 wins, one draw), scoring 72 in the process but Millen says title talk is all but banned in the changing room.

"To win the league in itself would be a massive achievement - to do it unbeaten would be unreal,” he said. “No one is talking about winning the league never mind doing it unbeaten.

"It would be amazing to win it, but nobody is allowed to talk about it. There are boys there who could play a couple of levels up and they know themselves this isn't done.

"There are massive games to come and we've a Lisburn derby on Saturday against FC United. We beat them 7-2 last time so they would love to beat us.

"They'd all love to beat us - they all want to be the team to take that unbeaten run and it's a target on our back. We maybe underestimated a few teams at the start but now the players know every team is coming for us."