Crunch time for ‘Well after sloppy draw

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NEWFOUNDWELL’S need to defeat Navan Cosmos in this Friday’s key Premier Division game at the MDL Astro has become all the more pressing after Danny Gartland’s charges needlessly dropped points at the same venue.

THE gale-force wind made it a game of two halves on Sunday in Navan as Quay edged closer to securing their place in the Premier Division, while denying their opponents from taking outright second place in the table and closing to within three points of leaders Muirhevnamor.

And the conditions certainly played a part in Quay’s dramatic late equalising goal as Sean Hand managed to beat ‘Well keeper Keith Martin from inside the Dundalk side’s half of the field.

Playing with the wind in the first period, the ‘Well had the ball in the net inside 60 seconds as they forced a corner from which Brian Kermode nodded Tom Reilly’s delivery past Quay keeper John Rogers. However, the referee ruled out the effort, indicating that the scorer had leaned into the covering defender.

However, Brian Kermode did get his name on the scoresheet after 30 minutes when he swept home a Craig O’Connor cross after the latter had been played down the flank by Dean Carolan.

The Drogheda outfit doubled their advantage on the 50-minute mark and this time Brian Kermode turned provider for his in-form brother John who shot past Rogers for 2-0.

Quay felt there was a suspicion of offside about both of the goals, and they must have felt it wasn’t going to be their day when they failed to halve the arrears from a penalty opportunity shortly after.

The ‘Well’s Stephen Murphy handled the ball on the goal-line, escaping with a yellow card for his troubles, but Martin - making his first league appearance of the season - saved the day by blocking the resulting spot kick.

However, Quay did hit back in the 65th minute when Vinny Smith cut inside from the left and his shot struck the far post and crossed the line before Martin could react.

Substitute Colin Finan then made it level pegging 15 minutes from the end when he finished convincingly in a one-on-one with Martin.

On 85 minutes Newfoundwell restored their lead when the other set of brothers in their team combined, Adam O’Connor teeing up Craig who rounded Rogers and slotted to the empty net.

The ‘Well resorted to keeping the ball in the corners to run down the clock, but they hadn’t reckoned on more than 10 minutes of injury time being played and deep into that time added on Quay stunned them with a remarkable equaliser.

With the ball in the Quay sixyard area, Rogers sliced a clearance under pressure from John Kermode into the path of his rightback Hand who launched the ball long - so long that from inside his own half the ball sailed over the head of the back-tracking Martin who himself landed in the net in his vain attempts to keep it out.