NAFL
Div 1a League match
Downpatrick 3 5 Drumaness Mills
Drumaness Mills made the short journey to Rosconnor and left with all three points despite a spirited display from the home team writes Cyril McKinney.
Downpatrick started well with Adrian McCoubrey shooting just wide from a distance on 6 minutes but were behind on 10 minutes when a long kick out from Oldroyd was not dealt with by the Downpatrick defence and in popped Deegan to volley past the helpless Gordon in the home goal.
Within two minutes Downpatrick were level when Matthew McGarrity bundled the ball home from close range as Drumaness failed to clear a high ball into the box.
With Drumaness in the ascendancy Deegan took advantage of some poor Downpatrick marking but shot over from the edge of the box and then McCarron narrowly missed after he engineered an opening for himself. Eventually the second goal came for Mills when Feenan was on hand with a smart finish after a period of sustained pressure on 22 minutes.
A few minutes later Deegan volleyed wide from close range when the Downpatrick keeper Kieran Gordon was hesitant in dealing with the ball.
To their credit Downpatrick did continue to get forward with Telford spearheading the attack with good support from Peter Turley, Matthew McGarrity and the McCoubrey brothers plus Brannigan on the right wing who consistently was causing the Mills rear-guard some problems and from a crossfield ball he was narrowly wide with a half chance.
All their work was undone on 39 minutes when Deegan was found in the box with a long range pass from the left wing from Holland and with poor Downpatrick marking he showed great composure and coolly slotted home to put Mills 3-1 up.
Into the second half it was even in the early exchanges until a quality Downpatrick finish from a route one clearance from keeper Gordon, the ball fell to Brannigan on the right edge of the Mills box and he drilled the ball home past an advancing Oldroyd in the Drumaness nets to get the home side back into the game on 55 minutes.
Drumaness hit back 4 minutes later following great work down the left flank from Conor McCarron who crossed for Feenan to finish neatly from 6 yards out.
With the game at 2-4 Downpatrick were still not done and Peter Telford showed his ageless class with a quality left foot finish from an acute angle on 68 minutes to leave the scoreline at 3-4 and set up an interesting last 20 minutes. The scoring was completed when from nothing Drumaness number 10 Michael Magee unleashed a long range shot from wide on the left wing and it hit the top corner of the Downpatrick net with Gordon back peddling helplessly – a wonder goal on 90 minutes to leave the final score at 3-5 to the visitors.
Downpatrick FC: Kieran Gordon, Ciaran McGarrity, Nathan McShane, Conor Moore, Anthony Doherty, Adrian McCoubrey, Jarlath Brannigan, Matthew McGarrity, Peter Turley, Peter Telford, Andrew McCoubrey. Subs: Caolan Taggart for Andrew McCoubrey, Drew Barnes for Kieran McGarrity , Caolan Logue for Matthew McGarrity
Drumaness Mills: Darren Oldroyd, Daniel Bell, Christian Holland, Neil Taggart, Mark Holland, Gary Murdock, Marc Feenan, Steven Deegan, Conor McCarron, Michael Magee
Subs: Tom McDonald, Patrick Morgan, Peter Kearney.
