Boyne win battle of the Harps

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BOYNE Harps warmed up for this week’s all-Drogheda battle against Newfoundwell with a vital home win over Kingscourt at United Park last Thursday.

The result moves Pete Brennan’s charges five points clear of the drop zone, but for a long while it looked as if Kingscourt would frustrate them and it took the introduction of striker William Woods to help turn the game Boyne’s way.

The Cavan side lined out with some tough, physical players, but from the start Boyne posed more of a threat and Danny Coyle’s effort after three minutes struck the post after good approach play from Steven Campbell, Richard Gibney and Ryan Connor.

However, Kingscourt steadied the ship and proved hard to break down as Boyne bossed in the possession stakes but struggled to break them down.

Their best tactic seemed to be to move the ball wide where James Traynor and the overlapping Connor enjoyed some success on the left side and Bernard Osborne worked well with Gibney on the opposite flank. However, the final pass often wasn’t good enough and apart from a Padraig McDonagh header which went wide Kingscourt weren’t seriously troubled.

The visitors had a couple of opportunities from corners, but the set pieces were well defended by the Boyne defence.

The hosts made a sluggish start to the second half but eventually started to move the ball a bit quicker and Connor unleashed a good shot that flew wide in the 65th minute.

With no breakthrough heading into the final quarter, Brennan turned to his bench and within 10 minutes the changes paid off.

A pass from one of the substitutes, James Guilfoyle, looked to pick out Connor, but he would have been offside and sensibly held his ground while McDonagh instead took the ball on before being upended by the Kingscourt keeper for a penalty.

With the watch showing 78 minutes Woods converted the spot kick. The scorer then took a pass from fellow sub Kenny Hurley and dummied past a defender, only to have his shot saved in a one-on-one situation with the opposition netminder.

However, Woods wasn’t to be denied a second goal in the 86th minute when Traynor was fouled out on the left and Guilfoyle’s ball to the back post was headed home by the former Drogheda United and Dundalk striker.