DARREN ‘Kenny’ Doran netted the only goal of the game at Station Road as Lagan Harps inflicted a first League defeat of the season on Kildrum Tigers this afternoon.
Kildrum Tigers 0 Lagan Harps 1
Doran’s goal, a strike that will haunt Kildrum and most especially their goalkeeper, Aidan Simmons, arrived in the 36th minute and was the only arbitrator in a game against the attacker’s former club.
Kildrum finished with ten men after Oran Higgins was sent off nine minutes from the end of a niggly contest played under a tense and fraught air by the Foyle.
Kildrum picked the wrong afternoon to have an off-day; victory here would have sent Shane Browne’s team to the summit.
But the Tigers fluffed their lines in more ways than one here. Defeat in a League where margins are Rizzla paper-thin means a mammoth task if the St Johnston men are to wrestle the title from Drumoghill’s clutches.
Without the unavailable Declan Curtis, Jonny Carlin and Brett McGinty and the suspended pair of Gareth Colhoun and Ethan Coll, the Tigers lacked a cohesion and when they threw the kitchen sink at their visitors late in the day, they couldn’t fashion a way back into the tie.
Kildrum fell behind after they’d gone close a couple of times themselves. Young striker Michael Devine had the pick of the openings, but an enterprising first-time attempt, having got under a dropping ball from a Simmons kick-out, dipped a fraction too late.
They had the ball in the net moments early, but referee Paddy Duffy had already blown for a Lagan free kick by the time Damian Crossan finished as Brian Coll’s floated free fell back into the captain’s path.
Lagan, who saw Marty Brogan drill over the top from a free kick and had Mark Hunter powering wide from a good position, took the lead with a gift-wrapped goal on 36 minutes.
Simmons attempted a throw-out to his left-back, Coll, but the ball clipped the head of Doran who suddenly found himself one-on-one with the Kildrum goalkeeper. Doran, a former Kildrum player, made no mistake in tucking home, to the delight of the Lagan support in a good attendance.
Kildrum had a renewed purpose about them in the second half, but Gary Crossan fired into the hands of Darren McEnvoy and another Crossan shot lacked conviction and Lagan managed to hack clear.
Kildrum had penalty claims when Higgins went down in the area, but Duffy waved play-on.
Crossan found himself in on goal again after James Melly’s well-timed tackle won the ball, but the ex-Finn Harps man fired wide of the far post. Damian Crossan, with Kildrum now in a desperate search of salvation, acrobatically fired over from a long throw-in by Coll.
Higgins saw red when he was given a second yellow card for retaliating to a tackle in the 81st minute and the Tigers lost composure with themselves during a heated conclusion in which Lagan were content to sit deep and let the clock tick down and it felt like a deception that only Higgins saw red when Duffy called time.
Crossan had another chance late in the day, but McEnvoy, somehow, managed to keep the sheet clean as Lagan claimed a big scalp and deliver a damaging dent to Kildrum’s hopes of League glory.
Kildrum Tigers: Aidan Simons; Jamie McKinney, Daniel Doherty (Shane Browne 75), Jonny McGinty, Brian Coll; Oran Higgins, James Melly, Damian Crossan, Gary Crossan; Michael Devine, William Lynch.
Lagan Harps: Darren McEnvoy; Oisin Grant, Ronan Gibson, Mark Graham, Marty Brogan; Caolan Murray, Oran Hilley, Glenn Gallagher, Micheál Doherty; Mark Hunter, Darren Doran.
Referee: Paddy Duffy.
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