Maguiresbridge 1
Derrychara United 3
At the seventh time of asking Derrychara United finally broke their points duck in division two when they recorded a fully deserved victory over Maguiresbridge at Castle Park on Saturday afternoon.
The depleted hosts were bright in the opening fifteen minutes with Stuart Murphy going close with a header, but once a long ball over the top found Derrychara winger Johnny Brownlee in behind to score they went to pieces. Centre half Ronan McManus couldn’t cut out a long delivery and the pacy Brownlee got to the ball ahead of keeper Simon Friel to lob the ball over him and into the net. The visitors then doubled their advantage when striker Lee Glass capitalised on a poor kick out to run in unopposed and finish well. It went from bad to worse for the Bridge when Brownlee got in behind again down the left and cut inside to make it 3-0.
Maguiresbridge were much improved in the second half but needed an early goal to mount any kind of comeback and couldn’t take their chance. Liam Donegan found himself through on goal ten minutes into the second half but his lob landed on the roof of the net with keeper Peter Phair beaten. Derrychara were dangerous on the break through Glass and Johnny Turley and only a superb block from sub Craig McWilliams stopped the latter from making it 4-1.
Ronan McManus was then unlucky to see his header came back off the post. The home side suffered another blow then as midfielder Warren Murphy was forced off with concussion meaning they had to finish the game with ten men. They did get some reward for their efforts with ten minutes to go when Pete Quinn stabbed in a rebound after Jimmy McDonald’s brilliant free kick was pushed onto the bar by keeper Phair but it was only a consolation score at that stage.