Narrow win for Shamrocks while Derry drop points
Tuesday March 02 2010
Shamrock F.C. 2 Nurney Villa 1: EXCELLENT SAVES by Nurney's goalkeeper, Chris Kearney, forced the league leaders Shamrocks to draw on all their determination to gain a narrow victory.
Shamrocks dominated the early exchanges, with the Villa keeper bringing off a couple of very good saves from Colin Price and Joe Lea.
The home side kept up the pressure and were rewarded with a penalty on 21 minutes which Saul Heavin duly converted.
Nurney came more into the game for the remainder of the first half but couldn't find a way through a solid Shamrocks defence.
Within a minute of the restart, Nurney were level with a well taken goal from Robert Fitzpatrick. Both sides missed opportunities, with Shamrock's Jamie Cooney very unlucky to hit the post on two occasions.
The deadlock was finally broken in injury time when Shamrock's Saul Heavin was fouled in the box by Villa's Mick Dowling their second penalty of the afternoon, substitute John Kenny made no mistake in finishing to the net.
Best for Shamrocks were Jamie Cooney, John Owens, Martin Bamberick and Joe Lea.
Players who stood out for Nurney Villa were Gary Phelan and Thomas Murphy in defence and man of the match Chris Kearney in goal.
Tullow Town 1 Derry Rovers 1
DERRY ROVERS dropped two valuable points and a share of pole position against a gallant Tullow on Sunday.
Goalkeeper for Tullow, Anthony Moran had an excellent game and it could be said he played a major part in denying Rovers of full points. Derry had a lot of possession in the first half, however on the break Tullow opened the scoring on 27 minutes, an excellent cross from Graham Doyle saw Jason Timmons finish.
Shocked by the Tullow lead, Rovers piled on the pressure and despite the best efforts of Paul Nolan and Eddie O'Leary, the Tullow keeper brought off two excellent saves to deny them the equaliser. The half ended 1-0 to Tullow.
Rovers came out in the second half with all guns blazing. From an Edward O'Leary corner kick, Richard Sinnott with a powerful header equalised. Town were always dangerous on the break and Martin Doran and Tommy Stynes had two good chances to retake the lead for Tullow. Conscious that they needed the three points to keep in contention with Shamrocks, Rovers continued with the pressure on the Tullow goalmouth area.
However, Anthony Moran was again to deny Derry's Paul Nolan and Peter Brennan and the visitors had to settle with a share of the points and second on the table, two points adrift of Shamrocks. Man of the match was Anthony Moran for Tullow Town.
