St Enda’s edge out Ardboe in dour tussle

Omagh 0-10 Ardboe 0-9

OMAGH capitalised on a silly error by Ardboe keeper Conall Quinn, three quarters of the way through this nervy Senior League encounter at drizzly O’Neill’s Healy Park on Thursday evening to turn the match completely on its head.

Trailing 0-9 to 0-6 in the 46th minute, St Enda’s were toiling to make much headway as an attacking force, but just after Ronan O’Neill had reduced the deficit with a close range free, the visitor’s goalie straightaway coughed up another foul in front of the posts, with a third man tackle on O’Neill off the ball.

Quinn was black carded, O’Neill knocked the subsequent free between the sticks, and with that, the momentum shifted in St Enda’s direction and they pushed on to register a vital win.

Ardboe failed to trouble the scoreboard at all in the final quarter, and despite a couple of encouraging results of late, they are still very much mired in the thick of the relegation playoff battle at the bottom.

>body2text<The dynamic Shea O’Hare was the stand-out performer for them, raiding through to hit four points, while captain Michael O’Neill and David Mulgrew also produced stout-hearted displays.

For Omagh the placed kicking assurance of O’Neill was pivotal (he hit six in total), and elsewhere Barry Tierney, Callum Daly and Conan Grugan also rolled their sleeves up to cajole and prompt their colleagues when the portents were looking bleak.

There was a dour opening to proceedings, with a point apiece in the first ten minutes. O’Hare belted over the opener for the visitors, before O’Neill tagged on his first free, after he, himself, was fouled.

The sides were dead-locked four times during a turgid first half, with prolonged spells of laboured lateral passing from both as they struggled to break the massed defensive ranks they encountered when crossing the halfway line.

Peter Devlin produced a rare moment of quality when he swivelled to plant a score after a fluent Ardboe move, before a bustling break from Hugh Gallagher paved the way for Enda McCaffrey to tuck over the leveller.

Goal chances were at a premium throughout, though it took an excellent block from Tierney to divert aside David Mulgrew’s rasper, with O’Hare on target with the subsequent ‘45’.

A neatly taken ‘mark’ by Tomas Haigney restored parity again for St Enda’s, and the sides remained locked in stalemate at the half after the two No 5s, Tierney and O’Hare drilled over points with some confidence.

Shay McGuigan and O’Neill swapped pointed frees on the restart, but it was the Lough Shore men who then gained the ascendancy, with the first concerted period of dominance in the contest.

Michael O’Neill swung over a beauty with the outside of the foot, before Conan Devlin stormed up the centre to drill a score.

Though Ronan O’Neill responded with another free, it was Ardboe playing with areal purpose and poise at this juncture. Peter Devlin cut in to fist over, and the dynamic O’Hare added to his collection with another emphatic finish over the top to put his side three to the good.

But then came the defining moment with Quinn in nets black carded and Omagh took full advantage to roar back into contention.

O’Neill planted two further frees and Connor O’Donnell hoisted a wonderful equaliser.

There was still plenty of time on the clock even after O’Neill eased Omagh ahead in the 52nd minute, but the match remained scoreless from then through to the final whistle.

The Scorers

Omagh

Ronan O’Neill (0-6,6f), Barry Tierney, Enda McCaffrey, Connor O’Donnell, Tomas Haigney (0-1 each)

Ardboe

Shea O’Hare (0-4,1 ’45’), Michael O’Neill, Conan Devlin, Peter Devlin, Matthew Bell (0-1 each), Shay McGuigan (0-1,f)