A DAVE SCULLY header was enough for a share of the spoils for Finn Harps in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division at Shamrock Rovers this afternoon.
Shamrock Rovers 1-1 Finn Harps
Rovers, who later saw Gary McCabe sent off, went ahead in the eighth minute after Ciaran Gallagher spilled the ball for the concession of a corner.
Brandon Miele’s delivery was headed home by Shaw to give Pat Fenlon’s team the lead against Harps’ five-man defence.
Gallagher atoned for that error midway through the first half when he stood up well to deny McCabe and then Miele should’ve done better.
Harps were skating on thin ice occasionally and had Gallagher to thank again for keeping the score at just the one. The Harps netminder got down to tip a Shaw effort just around the post on 42 minutes following a throughball by Stephen McPhail.
Three minutes into the second half, Harps were level thanks to a glancing header from Scully.
Gallagher was kept busy as Harps managed to keeps things evenly balanced. First he saved from McCabe and then did enough to prevent Shaw adding a second goal.
McCabe took issue with Gallagher coming through him to punch a ball and the Shamrock Rovers midfielder was then sent off on 66 minutes for an off-the-ball incident – kicking out at Gallagher.
Killian Brennan was narrowly off target with a free-kick but Harps almost nicked it with eight minutes to go when Michael Funston saw a shot deflected wide.
The draw put an end to a run of two successive league defeats, with Harps having lost 7-0 against Dundalk and then 4-0 at St Patrick’s Athletic.
[adrotate group=”69″]Shamrock Rovers: Craig Hyland; Simon Madden, Rob Cornwall, Sean Heaney, David O’Connor; Killian Brennan, Stephen McPhail (Pat Cregg 80); Dean Clarke (Danny North 70), Gary McCabe, Brandon Miele (James Doona 86); Gary Shaw.
Finn Harps: Ciaran Gallagher; Ethan Boyle (Josh Mailey 90+3), Damien McNulty, Packie Mailey, Tommy McMonagle, Ciaran Coll; Michael Funston, Gareth Harkin, Adam Hanlon (Tony McNamee 71); Dave Scully (Kevin McHugh 62), Sean Houston.
Referee: Anthony Buttimer.
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