Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LEDDY, WILLING & ABLE
Battling Town clinch a Windsor point thanks to Jon’s leveller
BY
LINFIELD were held to a coupon-busting draw by a spirited and courageous Warrenpoint Town at Windsor Park yesterday.
The champions threatened to overwhelm the visitors early on, with Christy Manzinga denied by a sprawling save from Conor Mitchell before Jordan Stewart lofted an ingenious chip beyond the keeper only to see the ball kiss the bar on its way over.
Stewart and Manzinga then combined to make the breakthrough in the 14th minute as the impish playmaker slid a clever pass through for the French striker to thump a confident shot into the bottom corner of the net.
If that came as no surprise, what followed was a bolt from the blue as Warrenpoint – having failed to score on their last four visits to Windsor – rammed home a stunning equaliser in the 22nd minute.
Following a spot of pinball on the edge of the Linfield box, Stuart Hutchinson was felled in a central position and Jonathan Leddy fizzed a vicious daisy cutter of a free kick past Chris Johns in goal.
That sucker punch took the wind out of the champions sails and they could have been behind at half-time as Steven Bell’s miscued cross had Johns worried, the ball drifting over the keeper’s head and just beyond his far post.
Emboldened, the visitors continued to threaten after the break and it took a smart save from Johns to stop Thomas Maguire’s hooked volley finding the net.
Linfield then hit the woodwork for the second time when Ahmed Salam’s instinctive effort beat Mitchell only to canon off the inside of the post before the Town defence scrambled the ball clear.
But back came Warrenpoint on the hour mark, with Johns rescuing his side again with a plunging save to his left after Alan O’Sullivan had skipped past Jimmy Callacher.
Johns once more had to look lively following another enterprising raid from the Town, with Kealan Dillon’s deflected shot forcing the keeper to twist in mid-air to keep the ball out.
At the other end, Mitchell parried a Callacher header when it looked like the centre-back was about to dig his side out of a hole but it was clear the visitors were in for a tough final 20 minutes.
Yet while Linfield rained a series of shots at goal and tossed a steady stream of crosses into the box, there was always a Warrenpoint body in the right place at the right time as Barry Gray’s basement battlers held firm for a most unlikely point.