Character the Quay as spoils are shared in six-goal thriller

QUAY paid for their mistakes, but showed character to salvage a draw after twice trailing by two goals.

They were the slightly better team in the early stages at Clancy Park on Friday night, but found themselves two nil down after half an hour, both resulting from headers following set-pieces.

The first was from a free-kick, and for the second the Quay defence failed to properly clear a corner kick, and the ball was crossed back into the box for Boyne to again find the net.

Keeping the sequence going Quay cut the deficit with a header, with Eimhin Caldwell and Stefan McKevitt carving an opening down the wing for the latter to cross to the back post for Eanna McArdle to score with his head.

Quay were well on top in the first ten minutes of the second-half, but in Boyne’s first attack a mix-up between goalkeeper John Rogers and Dean Sheil presented ace poacher William Woods with an open goal in which to knock the ball into from 40 yards, which he duly obliged.

Quay took over the play, and were rewarded with a penalty but wasted this golden opportunity to narrow the arrears, with substitute Colin Finan failing to find the net from the spot after 70 minutes.

However, fellow substitute Vinny Smith revived hope for Quay of gaining something from the game when he received the ball on the wing and cut inside two players and curled a terrific shot from inside the box into the far corner.

Quay threw everything then into securing an equaliser, and it arrived five minutes from time when in a scramble in the Boyne box Finan redeemed himself for the penalty miss when he slotted the ball home from 14 yards .

The result leaves Quay two points ahead of the champions of two seasons ago, with two games less played and although fourth from bottom should be free of relegation worries. QUAY: John Rogers, Stefan McKevitt, Dean Sheil, Michael Burke, David Redmond, Eimhin Caldwell (Vinny Smith 55) Johnny Winters (Robbie Gavigan 55), Niall McLaughlin, Eanna McArdle, Denis Cholach (Colin Finan 45), Adam McKenna.