Leaders pay the penalty in derby tussle
MUIRHEVNAMOR 2 QUAY CELTIC 2
THE leaders were held to their second successive draw in a topsy turvy game in which they wasted two penalties and had a player sent-off midway through the second half.
They should by right have had the points sewn up after the opening half hour at the Muirhevnamor all weather pitch on Friday night, but were defied by a Man of the Match performance by Stephen Fisher who deputised in the Quay goal for the absent John Rogers.
The home side also had a stand-in goalkeeper in Adrian Rafferty with regular net minder David Cooney also missing, but he in contrast was virtually idle as Fisher performed heroics to keep Quay on level terms.
Then in one of the few times he was called into action in the first half Rafferty pulled off a great double save from Denis Cholach who sprinted clear into the penalty box from a pass played over the Muirhevnamor defence. The home defence tried in vain to scramble the ball away but Adam McKenna rammed the loose ball into the net from close range to give Quay the lead completely against the run of play.
Quay held the lead not much more than a minute as Mickey O’Kane in similar fashion scored on the rebound from close range to equalise, and before the halftime whistle his striking partner Brendan Hughes turned the tables right round. He swept in Paul Mallon knock back from an almost identical position.
Muirhevnamor seemed set fair for victory when a few minutes over the hour Sean Matthews took down Ray McCann when O’Kane slipped him through into the penalty box.
Jimmy Cooney stepped up to take the spot kick but Quay hero Fisher guessed right and flung himself full length to his right to push the ball out from near the foot of the post.
The squandering of this glorious opportunity was compounded with Steven Smith virtually straight away ending up in the referee’s notebook for the second time and was dismissed.
A couple of minutes later these two lapses became even more costly when that man Cholach whose speed was a real menace found room in behind the Muirhevnamor defence, chested the ball down on the edge of the penalty box and volleyed it with aplomb low into the bottom corner of the net.
The vastly experienced Sean Dixon was brought on to bolster the shaky home defence, and he made a vital block to stop a goal bound shot entering the home net.
Then in a final twist to a dramatic match Muirhevnamor were awarded a hotly disputed second penalty with Jimmy Cooney adjudged to have been taken down inside the right edge of the Quay penalty box in the last minute.
This time Ray McCann took the kick, but sent it high and wide past the left upright.
One wonders can potential league winners afford to pass up such golden opportunities. MUIRHEVNAMOR: Adrian Rafferty, Craig Dixon (Sean Dixon 80) Paul Mallon, Jimmy Cooney, Steven Smith, Ray McCann, Gary Clarke, Philip Duffy, Thomas Mc Shane, Brendan Hughes, Mickey O’Kane.
QUAY: Stephen Fisher, Michael McDonnell (Stefan McKevitt 67), David Redmond (Colin Finan 54), Niall McLaughlin, Dean Sheils, Mickey Burke, Denis Cholach, Sean Hand, Adam McKenna, Drew Duffy, Sean Matthews.