Honours even between Ramparts and Greenfield
A point shared but both Greenfield and Ramparts Celtic would have felt they had the chance to come away with all three points on Sunday morning, January 20, in the North Louth Winter League.
Greenfield came into the match top of the league and with plenty of confidence following a dominant victory in their previous outing and while the first half went according to the script a spirited second half display from Ramparts almost gave them the victory.
Greenfield dominated the opening exchanges and took a deserved one nil lead in the opening 15 minutes after Aaron Lawless took advantage of some confusion in the Rampart defence. At one point it looked as though the leaders would add to that lead with Ger Redmond saving Ramparts on a couple of occasions by cutting out prob- ing balls from the Greenfield midfield. As is often the case with Ramparts they got stronger as the game progressed and started to create some openings for themselves by the end of the half.
It was in the second half that the match came alive with Ramparts punishing Greenfield early on with the league leaders slow to get out of the gates. A swift counter attack was capped by Kaylem Conway slotting home at the far post to draw his side level. It was one way traffic from Ramparts for the next twenty minutes as they continuously put pressure on the Greenfield goal.
Marcel Okeawa was at the centre of everything at this stage of the game with the strong central midfielder showing a nimble touch to create openings. Eventually one of these paid off as he found Alan Wilson who sprung the offside trap to get behind the line and calmly slot the ball home to give Ramparts the lead.
With the game edging away from them Greenfield made a tactical change and moved Aidan McGuiness to their front line. At the same time Ramparts were forced into making a change with Redmond being taken off. It took a few minutes for the Ramparts’ backline to settle into their new roles but by that point Greenfield had won a penalty, saved by Aaron Conway, and McGuiness had levelled the proceedings for Greenfield.
In the closing minutes both teams had more opportunities to claim the three points but ultimately a draw was a fair result for both with Greenfield maintaining their position as league leaders and Ramparts gaining some momentum ahead of their cup campaign.