Crossmolina 1-1 Conn Rangers

Crossmolina capped a hectic 4 games in 9 days spell with a 1-1 draw against Conn Rangers in Abbeytown on Saturday evening. Both teams contributed fully to a wide open entertaining match which could have gone either way before culminating in a fair draw. Crossmolina had the better of the opening exchanges and for the first 20 minutes it was a quite one-sided affair with Rangers struggling to cope with the home side's pace up front. Crossmolina squandered an early goal scoring opportunity on 5 mins when Joe Keane's free kick was parried by the Conn Rangers goalie towards John Duggan who lunged to direct the ball wide from 10 yards out. Crossmolina's pressure paid dividends in the 15th minute when Derek Greham scored the game's opening goal. He raced onto a through ball from midfield which fell in the no-man's-land between him and the goalkeeper. The netminder's hesitation in collecting the ball proved fatal because when he decided to challenge for it Greham was already there and he slid a slow-motion pass from the left hand side into an empty goal. Instead of spurring the home side onto greater things the goal seemed to spark Rangers to life. Despite not creating any great scoring chances they stemmed the previously prolific supply from the Crossmolina midfield and started to mount attacks of their own. Their positive attitude was rewarded in the 38th minute when referee Jimmy Blakey harshly decided that John Hegarty had obstructed a Rangers player in the penalty area. Nevertheless, the spot kick was thumped into the top left of Johnny O'Hora's goal for the equaliser. After half time both teams seemed intent on scoring the winner, with Conn Rangers imposing themselves much more on the game, thus rendering the game an attacker's dream and a defender's nightmare as play yoyoed back and forth for most of the 45 minutes. Crossmolina goalie O'Hora distinguished himself during the half with a series of fine acrobatic saves as Conn Rangers gained the upper hand and could have taken the lead on a few occasions. His highlight save came midway through the period when he stopped a Rangers shot which seemed destined for the top corner of his net. His save deflected the ball into the path of a lurking Rangers striker and only the timely intervention of John McGuinness saved a certain goal. Conn Rangers goalie matched his counterpart's heroics with a quality save of his own with only 7 minuted remaining in the match. Eoin Syron slipped a pass across from the left side of the area and Duggan back-heeled the ball to Steven Canavan who was arriving behind him. His shot from 12 yards out was superbly saved by the Rangers custodian thus ensuring that the game would end in a draw. It was a just result although Conn Rangers may feel that their second half efforts merited all 3 points. Crossmolina, on the other hand, will hope to do better in a fortnight's time when the two team's play the other half of their league series at Conn Rangers. It proises to be an intriguing fixture.

Crossmolina- J O'Hora, J McGuinness, J Hegarty, J Keane, M Loftus, J Duggan(K Canavan 88) , P McGuinness, S Canavan, E Syron, J Canavan, D Greham

Premier League Results

Erris Utd 1-0 Achill

Claremorris 2-2 Ballina Town

Bangor 4-1 Lacken

Ballyvary 2-4 Glenisland