Late Canavan goal earns Errigal a draw with Dromore

Errigal Ciaran 2-4  Dromore 1-7

THE Canavan brothers combined to rescue a draw for Errigal Ciaran in injury time of this scrappy affair at Dunmoyle on Saturday afternoon, Darragh rampaging through to tee up Ruairi to hammer home a tremendous equalising goal.

It was an outcome which the hosts will grasp with both hands as they were strangely out of sorts, with visitors Dromore in the ascendancy for the most part throughout.

The assurance and leadership of the likes of Peter Teague, Conor O’Hara and Sean McNabb helped St Dympna’s dictate proceedings, though they were left ruing their failure to open more significant daylight on the scoreboard, which left them susceptible to that late Errigal sucker punch.

In mitigation Errigal were missing Tyrone defender Cormac Quinn, while other county men Darrragh Canavan and Joe Oguz were reduced to cameo appearances as second half subs, so they will hope to strengthen their options as they build to the Championship opener in a few weeks time.

And they will also be encouraged by the sparkling individual performance of Ruairi Canavan who, despite feeding off scraps at times, weighed in with their entire scoring tally, which proved sufficient to secure a point.

Dromore signalled their intent from the off with Declan McNulty landing an early free, and with a passive and disjointed Errigal taking time to settle, the visitors imposed their gameplan on the match, if not exactly finding tangible reward on the scoreboard.

By the quarter hour mark they had managed to ease three points to the good as Oran Sludden and Ronan McNabb jnr found the target with confident strikes.

However with almost their first genuine attacking sortie Errigal drew level as in the 17th minute a good bustling run from midfielder Padraig McGirr paved the way for Canavan to provide an emphatic finish to the net low past keeper Mark McGale.

On a blustery afternoon Errigal still really couldn’t really ignite their challenge, though it took an excellent stop by McGale to prevent Thomas Canavan hitting a further goal for the hosts.

As it was two superb left footed scores from Sean McNabb, on the burst, handed St Dympna’s a narrow 0-5 to 1-0 interval advantage.

A wonder score from Ruairi Canavan on the restart, after he plucked a low delivery off his toes, to turn and curl over, reduced the arrears, before McNulty responded with a pointed free at the other end.

In the 36th minute Darragh McAnenly in the Errigal goals palmed away Tiarnan Sludden’s effort with a point blank save, but in the immediate follow-up, Ryan McCusker did beat the home keeper with a low drive.

Errigal must have sensed it wasn’t to be their day when sub Darragh Canavan was set clear on the counter-attack by Ben McDonnell but his well-struck shot cannoned back into play off the near post.

With five minutes remaining Dromore held a fine point lead, as another excellent Sean McNabb attempt cancelled out Ruairi Canavan’s ’45’.

Another brace of Canavan score (one free) kept Errigal just about in the hunt, and the goal they needed to dig themselves out of a hole duly arrived in the 62nd minute, Darragh doing the spadework by darting in from the right, and Ruairi blasted into the net.

The Scorers

Errigal Ciaran

Ruairi Canavan (2-4, 1f, 1 ’45’)

Dromore

Sean McNabb (0-3), Ryan McCusker (1-0), Declan McNulty (0-2,2f), Oran Sludden, Ronan McNabb jnr (0-1 each)