Sides have to settle for a point

Magheraveely 0 NFC Kesh 0

Magheraveely continued their good run of form, holding Kesh to a goalless draw to make it one defeat in their last six matches. The league table could not separate the two teams before kick with both sides tied on 15 points, and there was nothing to choose between the sides on the pitch either with neither side able to find a winning goal.

“I was very pleased again with the performance and the result,” said Magheraveely manager Eamon Mcglone. “We have been good defensively over the last six months and to pick up another clean sheet and limit Kesh to a few half chances was very good. Even more so as we were without some of our more attacking players such as David Elliott, Corman Boyle and Danilo Ramos.”

It is now three consecutive draws for Kesh, who were kept scoreless for the first time since the second weekend of the season.

“It was a battle,” admitted Kesh manager Ryan Campbell.

“We dominated possession in the game, but I thought we didn’t create enough clear cut chances to win it. They sat in and tried to hit us on the counter and they were hard to break down. Defensively they were very good, and I would say they are the more happy of the two teams.

“I thought it was one of those days where if we had scored one we might have gone on to score two or three but we just couldn’t get the goal. They worked the game well and had a couple decent half chances, so they probably deserved the point at the end of it.”

Kesh had the first sight of goal in a tight and tense first half, but the striker’s early shot rose over the crossbar. Kyle Malone was then called on to make a perfectly timed last ditch tackle to keep the scores level at the half time interval.

Kesh substitute Dylan Aiken came the closest to finding a goal, but his shot came back off the post with 15 minutes remaining as the game petered out into a stalemate.