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NFC Kesh 3-2 Draperstown Celtic

February 16, 2009

It was a long journey home for Draperstown and it gave them plenty of time to ponder over how once again in this strange season did they fail to take any points from the match. Yes, Kesh are the league leaders and play some fine football on a tight pitch with a good surface, but they were quick to admit that they got away with it on Saturday. Celtic contrived to hit the wood work five times and were denied a blatant penalty in the last minute but such has been their luck this year, one could hardly expect anything else.

Draperstown went into the game with a number of enforced changes. McNicholl, Heron, Graffin and O’Brien were all unavailable for a variety of reasons and had to play the first ten minutes with ten men as left back McGuigan was late in arriving. In this period Kesh threatened to score and only two good saves from Farniouk denied Jones and Rooney. Celtic weathered this storm and began to get a better share of the possession. Gavin Bradley should have opened the scoring for Draperstown on 20 minutes when picking up Caulfield’s cross field pass he drove wide of the far post when a goal looked likely.

Farniouk again saved well from Jones on 23 minutes before Quinn headed over a good chance from Bradley’s corner. Bradley then hit the bar with a chipped effort which had Carleton beaten all ends up before the home keeper made a good blocking save from Young as Draperstown began to take control.
Funston was lucky only to receive a warning after a heavy tackle from behind on Murray and John Higgins was unlucky to see his free kick shave the far post.

Draperstown’s goal came in 37th minute when Murray latched onto McGuigan’s long ball and finished well from the edge of the box. The lead lasted only 7 minutes when Cashel was given too much time to lay off a pass to Declan McKeever who scored from 20 yards. There was still time for Bradley to almost regain Celtic the lead but his free hit the post before being cleared to safety.

The second half saw Celtic take the game to their opponents and Higgins saw his shot well saved by Carleton on 49 minutes but two minutes later Kesh took the lead when McKeever latched onto a poor clearance and lashed the ball home for his second of the game. Immediately after the re-start Celtic had forced a corner and this time it was Murray whose header crashed against the bar before being cleared. Murray’s defence splitting pass then set up Bradley but Carleton was up to the task and parried the ball away. Kesh took firm control of the game on 58 minutes when Jones took advantage of some poor defending and scored from 12 yards to put the home side firmly in the driving seat. But only two minutes later Higgins’ free as met by Murray and his firm header again crashed off the cross bar.

Gavin Bradley did pull a goal back when he scored direct from a 25 yard free kick and with 12 minutes left the game became more open than it had previously been. Jones and O’Brien shot wide as Kesh attempted to take advantage of Celtic pushing forward. But there was still time for Draperstown to almost snatch a point. The 90th minute saw Bradley hit the post for the third time with a powerful header and Murray’s follow up attempt was blocked on the line by a Kesh hand but claims for the penalty were turned down.

Kesh were able to see out the final two minutes with no further problems but as one home supporter stated after the game “With a bit of fine tuning, Draperstown would have beaten us well.”

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Written by Michael Kelly · Filed Under First Team, News