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Burke strike keeps QPS at the
top
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Cockhill Celtic...0 Quigley’s Point Swifts...1 (Burke ’35) By Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent QUIGLEY'S Point Swifts maintained their lead at the top of the Premier Division with a hard fought 1-0 victory over Cockhill Celtic on Sunday afternoon. Wet underfoot conditions had little apparent effect on either team and it took a special goal, from the right foot of Liam Burke, ten minutes before the break to separate the sides. Cockhill missed a penalty a minute after going behind and were reduced to ten men midway through the second half when ’keeper Leo McColgan was red-carded for a tackle on Terry McColgan. But as is often the case, the side with ten men upped their performance and the home team came on strong in the final quarter of the game but just couldn’t find the equaliser. The first chance of the game fell to Cockhill’s Darragh Lyons when Paul Grant’s header back to his ’keeper fell short. Lyons pounced on the loose ball but snatched at his shot which flew right and wide. Seven minutes in Terry McColgan, who tormented the Cockhill defence over the 90 minutes, capitalised on a misunderstanding between centre half Michael O’Connor and goalkeeper Leo McColgan. He pushed the ball wide to the right and his low cross found the inrushing Liam Burke who shot narrowly wide. |
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Cockhill’s Kevin McDaid
went close on 14 minutes when his chip from 40m eluded
Point ’keeper Dan Carlin but the shot dropped just
inches over the bar and landed on top of the net. Cockhill midfielder Paul Hegarty had to alert on the half hour when he cleared a shot from Seanan McColgan off the line, but the Point took the lead ten minutes before the break. Liam Burke won the ball in midfield and slipped a clever pass into Terry McColgan and continued his run into the box. McColgan used the inside of his heel to flick the ball back into Burke’s path and the midfielder crashed an unstoppable shot into the bottom right corner. But Cockhill had a chance to equalise almost immediately when Daniel Carlin brought down Shane McDaid |
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in the area. However, Paul
Hegarty scuffed the spot kick and the ball trickled to
the left and wide. Cockhill looked lively on the restart with Sean McKinney and Paul Hegarty going close early on, but the ever dangerous Terry McColgan almost double the Swifts’ lead on the hour. He ran onto a through ball and kept his balance under a challenge from Michael O’Connor to poke the ball past Leo McColgan but Gary Hegarty was on hand to shepherd the ball out for a corner. With Cockhill pressing for the equaliser the Point were looking dangerous on the break. Three of them broke the offside trap in the 65th minute forcing Cockhill keeper Leo McColgan to come rushing out and he brought down Terry McColgan 30m from goal. While Tel wasn’t in a goal-scoring position, referee Charlie Doherty judged the tackle to be a dangerous one and issued a red card to the Cockhill stopper. The home side were forced to reshuffle their pack, substituting striker Kevin McDaid and putting Adrian Browne between the posts. Browne dealt comfortably with everything the Point threw at him for the remainder of the game. With 15 minutes remaining Gary Hegarty was again on hand to clear a goal bound Terry McColgan shot, but the ten men of Cockhill upped their performances and had the better of chances in the closing stages. The best of those fell to Sean McKinney nine minutes from time when he found space on the edge of the D and his shot drew a spectacular save from Daniel Carlin. Barney Gubbins’ shot from distance from the resulting corner was also cleared by the Point defence. An interesting subplot to the match was the return of Donny Bell to Cockhill. Bell helped Cockhill gain promotion to the Premier Division with a bagful of goals last season and was determined to score against his old club. But Cockhill were equally determined not to give him the satisfaction and the league’s top scorer had a frustrating afternoon. Nevertheless, his new side held on for the win to maintain their three point lead over Clonmany Shamrocks in second place. Redcastle, who lost their first game of the season to lowly Dunree on Sunday, slip to fourth having been leapfrogged by Carn who beat Aileach 3-2. However, Redcastle have two games in hand. Cockhill lie third from bottom with two wins and two draws from their 12 games. |
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Cockhill: Leo
McColgan; Gary Hegarty, Michael O’Connor, Martin
Donaghey, Barney Gubbins; Shane McDaid, Sean McKinney,
Paul Hegarty, Jarlath Herrity; Kevin McDaid (Adrian
Browne 65), Darragh Lyons (Eddie Cuffe 83). QPS: Daniel Carlin; Dean Barron, Barry McColgan, Kevin Wallace, Paul Grant; Seanan McColgan (Joe Johnston 89), Sean Harkin, Liam Burke, Paul Hegarty (Mark Duffy 58); Terry McColgan, Donny Bell. For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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