Report

QPS Res                        4

Carrowmena FC           4

A lively encounter saw the hosts take the lead in the second minute. Adam Harkin beat the offside trap to latch on to Paul Heagrty’s low through ball before coolly finishing into the bottom left corner. Hegarty almost doubled the lead two minutes later but his effort from the left went just wide after being laid on by Harkin. The Muff side had two more good early chances. Jack McConnelogue’s header was cleared off the line after a good cross from Harkin on the right while Kevin Wallace headed over from six yards from a Hegarty corner. At the other end, Conor Lafferty went close with a twenty-yard free-kick.Carrowmena reversed the scoreline with two goals in six minutes. On eighteen minutes, the visitors broke from a Swifts corner and Conor Radcliffe finished well into the bottom corner from ten yards. Then on twenty-four minutes, a long ball from Killian Dougal beat the Point defence and Conor Lafferty curled the ball around an oncoming David Bell into the bottom right corner. But the Muff side were level five minutes later when Carrowmena keeper Samuel Bredin mis-judged Paul Grant’s thirty-five yard free-kick and the ball rolled into the net. The rest of the first half was a scrappy affair with both sides engaged in a midfield battle.

The away side started the second half brighter. Colin Doherty’s well-struck effort from twenty-five yards forced a good save from Bell, and the young Point keeper had to be alert again on fifty-one minutes to deal with Dane Doherty’s snap shot from a corner. Their pressure was rewarded in fifty-fifth minute. Dean McGeoghan’s well-timed pass broke Quigley’s Point high defensive-line and released Conor Lafferty down the right, who squared a pass to Dane Doherty for an easy tap in from six yards. But Swifts hit back two minutes later. A long diagonal ball from Paul Grant beat the Carrowmena defence and found young striker Josh McLaughlin who controlled well before tucking the ball home from close-range.

Both sides continued to push in a pulsating period of the game. Colin Doherty had another long-range effort saved by David Bell, while Paul Hegarty’s shot from the edge of the Carrowmena box went inches wide. Carrowmena midfielder Christopher McGeoghan headed over after a good-free kick on the right from Lafferty, while Kevin Wallace headed wide from a Paul Hegarty corner for the hosts.

Quigley’s Point regained the lead in the seventy-first minute. After some good build-play around the penalty area, Paul Grant lofted a beautifully weighted pass over the defence to Jack McConnelogue and the young midfielder made no mistake from six yards to make it four-three. The visitors should have been level a minute later. Conor Radcliffe’s cross from the left was tipped onto the bar and over by Bell. From the resulting corner, Colin Doherty’s header was cleared off the line by Simon Wallace before substitute Mark Doherty blasted the rebound over the bar.

With both sides tiring, Carrowmena were reduced to ten men with five minutes left when Conor Lafferty was sent-off for a second bookable offence. But with two minutes left, they snatched an equalizer. A long-free-kick from their own half was headed on by Christopher McGeoghan, and Gerard Gill brilliantly hooked an effort at full stretch over David Bell into the net to secure a vital point for the bottom placed side.

Moville Celtic               1