The Isle of Man men’s football team progressed to the semi-finals as group winners in the NatWest Island Games after defeating Ynys Mon 4-0 at Stenkyrka in Gotland on Tuesday.

The Manx side took the lead after only nine minutes. The Welsh goalkeeper passed the ball to his defender but Ciaran McNulty charged down and the pass fell at the feet of Calum Morrissey who drove a low shot into the bottom left, his seventh goal in three games in this year’s competition.

With 18 minutes registered, the Isle of Man doubled their lead. Jack McVey’s excellent pass picked out Morrissey who raced clear before drawing the opposing shot-stopper away from his goal and squaring to McNulty to sweep the ball into an empty net.

Ynys Mon did have their moments, their left winger escaped from his marker and forced goalkeeper Damyan Petkov into making a fine save while there were a few fractious moments involving the two sides in the closing stages of the half.

Eight minutes after the restart, the IoM strengthened their grip on the match when Ynys Mon were reduced to 10 players after their goalkeeper was sent off for handling outside of the penalty area.

Frank Jones went close to adding to the scoreline following a well-worked move that put the captain clear, but he lifted his effort over the crossbar from close range.

However, he made no mistake on 62 minutes when McNulty’s corner picked out the leaping skipper to direct a header into the roof of the net to make it 3-0.

McNulty twice went close, on the first occasion he curled his shot narrowly wide before another effort forced the stand-in goalkeeper to make a fine save.

On 89 minutes the Manx side completed the scoring following a well-worked counter. McNulty raced along the left, his squared pass was met by Sean Doyle to tuck home a low shot for their fourth and completed the group stages with a 100 per cent winning record.

IoM v Ynys Mon: Damyan Petkov, Liam Cowin (Matthew Woods 81m), Jack McVey, Alex Harrison, Chris Cannell, Daniel Bell, Frank Jones (captain) (Rhys Oates 70m), Stephen Riding, Sam Caine, Calum Morrissey (Sean Doyle 70m) Ciaran McNulty.

PAUL HATTON

Twitter: @Hatty1970