RAPHOE HOSTED NEWRY at the Royal School Grounds in Raphoe on Saturday and after last week’s defeat in North Down gained a hard earned point against tough opposition.
Raphoe 2 Newry 2
Compared to last week Raphoe started this game pretty well looking to attack Newry at every opportunity and within two minutes they nearly took the lead but George Patterson’s shot went narrowly wide.
Raphoe kept the press on but couldn’t find the breakthrough as Newry’s keeper made a couple of good saves to keep he score blank.
At the other end Newry had a couple of chances of their own from short corners but between Johnny Rankin and his defence the danger was easily cleared.
Raphoe had several short corners of their own in the first half but again Newry’s keeper stood tall and saved well twice from Ben Wallace.
Closing in on half time it was third time lucky for Wallace as from another short corner he broke the deadlock with an excellent strike from the top of the circle giving the keeper no chance.
Into the second half and as expected Newry pressed forward looking for an equaliser and within five minutes of the restart they were level – some woeful tackling outside Raphoe’s circle resulted in a short corner and from the top of the circle John Taylor found the bottom right hand corner to bring the sides level.
Now on a high Newry were on top and pushed forward looking for a second goal and midway through the half they took the lead from another short corner and again it was Taylor on target as he fired low into the back of the net.
Raphoe had to regroup after this and it was now their turn to push forward and as they did Newry’s tempers boiled over and they found themselves down to nine men.
With the extra men advantage Raphoe had several chances to score but again found the keeper hard to beat until from another short corner Ben Wallace stepped up and fired the ball into the bottom left hand corner to break Newry’s resistance.
Raphoe still with the extra men tried to force a winner in the last few minutes but couldn’t squeeze the ball over the line and the match ended 2 – 2.
Raphoe now have two away games in the space of a week – firstly on Wednesday night they travel to South Antrim with an 8pm push back and then next Saturday they travel to Mossley with a 2.30pm push back.
Raphoe: Johnny Rankin, Simon Goudie, Ben Wallace, William Wauchope, Paul Stewart, William Kilpatrick, Kit Regan, Keith Meehan. Vincent Devenney, George Patterson, Luke Witherow, Stephen Cleverley, Alan Lyttle, Alexander Tinney. Coach: Rodney Bates. Manager: Richard Eaton.
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