Draperstown emerged victorious in this closely fought game against Trojans in another very entertaining game. Last week these two sides shared 8 goals in an exciting draw and there was little to divide them after another exciting game.
Celtic were forced to make a number of changes from last week with Higgins, McKee and O’Kane returning to the starting line up replacing Donnelly, Brown and last week’s hat trick hero Chris McGarrigle. However the changes didn’t appear initially to make a great deal of difference to Celtic’s approach to the game. Twice in the first 5minutes John Higgins came close to opening the scoring, only to be thwarted by Martin in the Trojan’s goal, the second of which was a good reflex save. Despite this good opening from Draperstown it was Trojans who opened the scoring on 16 minutes when Leonard initially saved well from John Travers but the ball fell for James Gallagher who slotted home from 8 yards.
Draperstown responded well and Seamus Bradley shot just wide after a good move involving Eamon Murray and Ryan Bradley. Murray also saw a good free kick smothered by Martin on 23 minutes but two minutes later came the deserved equaliser when good work by Seamus Bradley on the left saw him cross to John Higgins who swept the ball home from close range. Drapertown almost conceded the lead straight when a piece of careless play allowed Gallagher in on goal but he hesitated and the Celtic defence were able to scramble the ball away. Gallagher was again involved in the thick of the action for Trojans when he crashed the ball against the cross bar from close range as Trojans finished the half looking the stronger side.
As with last week however, it was Draperstown who had control of much of the second period. Bradley put keeper Martin under a lot of pressure with the keeper happy to hack the ball clear of danger. But he was soon picking the ball out of the net on 57 minutes when McKee’s pass found Murray whose shot was parried by Martin only for John Higgins to score his and Celtic’s second of the day. But back came Trojans and three minutes later they had their equaliser when after Celtic failed to clear their lines, McGuinness scored from 6 yards. Gallagher again came close with a header on 63 minutes but Celtic responded to this pressure by again taking the lead in spectacular fashion when Seamus Bradley’s corner was met on the volley by Declan Graffin , the ball flying into the top corner past Martin for what turned out to be the winning goal.
In this end to end game Kevin Leonard did well to save from Nash and Trojans will be wondering how they did not score after a goal line melee on 73 minutes eventually saw Celtic clear the danger. However they in turn were relieved to see Bradley’s shoot wide after breaking through the Tojan defence on 75 minutes. There followed a series of bookings as the game became rather scrappy which perhaps suited Draperstown as Trojans could not mount a constructive threat to the home goal. Indeed it was Celtic who finished the stronger and Gary Conway was unlucky to see his shot canon off the post with Martin well beaten. All in all another very entertaining game between these two evenly matched sides, with Draperstown taking the spoils on this occasion but with Trojans feeling they did enough to gain a point.
Team:
Kevin Leonard, Ryan Browne, John Higgins, Declan Graffan, Stephen McKee, Cathal Donnelly, Raymond Caulfield, Conor McDevitt, Sean McBride, Chris McGarrigle, Kevin Ward.
Subs: Seamus Bradley, Ryan Bradley
