‘It was a hard day at the office’ admits Amos
Lisnarick 2 Omagh Hospitals 7
Lisnarick are still looking for their first league points of the season, after conceding late goals to lose out to Omagh Hospitals.
The recently relegated Hossies side led 3-2 with 15 minutes remaining with Lisnarick goals from Barry Goodwin and Daniel Hughes keeping them in contention, but Hospitals finished strongly to keep their 100 percent start intact.
“It was another hard day at the office,” acknowledged Lisnarick manager Niall Amos.
“They had three chances in the first half and scored two of them.
“We pulled one back five minutes into the second half and I thought we were the best team then for a good 25 minutes after that, but they caught us on the counter to make it 3-1.
“We capitulated then for the last 15 minutes. We did keep pushing, but they picked us off on the counter.”
“I couldn’t fault our commitment for 75 minutes. I thought we were brave.
“Omagh Hospitals are going to be thereabouts and are one of the better teams in the league, and it was a much better performance from us compared to the week before when we were dreadful against the Bridge.
“We are trying to blood a lot of new guys, and a lot of them are under 20 years of age, so we are trying to find the balance at the minute. It is work in progress.
“We are away to Fintona this week and we are expecting it to be a very demanding physical game, but we will keep working and see how things go.”
There was little to choose between the sides in the opening exchanges with both teams limited to half chances before the opening goal arrived on 30 minutes when Omagh Hospitals fired past the keeper from inside the penalty area.
They quickly added a second, but Lisnarick did have a great chance to pull one back before half time when Goodwin was put clear of the defence, but his lob over the keeper landed on the top of the net.
Five minutes after the break Goodwin made amends when he once again broke clear, and this time attempted to round the keeper.
His first effort was blocked, but he tucked away the rebound to half the deficit.
That marked the start of Lisnarick’s best spell of the match, but they could not find an equaliser and Hossies hit them on the break to add a third.
Daniel Hughes fired in from a tight angle to reduce the gap again, but the home team conceded immediately, and Hospitals put the game out of sight with a flurry of late goals to seal the points.