Eastfield claim point at Gartferry

Gartferry ............... 3 Eastfield Star ........ 3 Eastfield Star earned a 3-3 draw away to Gartferry in the Sunday Central Division One despite playing the latter stages with nine men.

Neither team had any clear-cut chances until Star’s Darren McCann broke the deadlock on the half hour mark with a sweet turn and strike from 25 yards.

The goal set Gartferry into life and invited pressure onto the Eastfield defence.

The hosts equalised through a deflection on the 40th minute and took the lead on the stroke of half time from a free-kick. The ball was swung in and the keeper was caught out by the sun as he tried to catch the ball instead of punching it away.

The visitors grew in confidence after the break, and in the 60th minute a great bit of play between captain Mick Mcallen and trialist Calum Craig lead to the equaliser. The debut boy turned his marker inside out on the bye-line and fired right across the face of goal with Darren McCann scoring the simplest of goals from two yards.

Gartferry then scored their third after a goal-kick which missed everyone, and their striker outpaced defender Ross Jackson to go through and score.

With 15 minutes left Eastfield made their only sub by bringing on forward Scott Hendry for Andy Wynne from midfield. Scott, with almost his first touch, levelled the game with a scuffed shot which the Gartferry keeper thought was going wide as it trickled into the net.

The last 10 minutes of the game saw Eastfield player Ross Jackson sent off before Rab Laing was also shown a red card after he stopped the hosts grabbing a winner in the final moments with a bad tackle.