Maguiresbridge 1-11

Irvinestown 2-08

Maguiresbridge came back from eight points down at half time to draw this home fixture, on Sunday afternoon.
Despite being a fairly evenly contested first half possession wise, Irvinestown took their chances in front of goal whereas the home side were guilty of a number of wides.
Ronan Ormsby opened the scoring for Irvinestown from a free before Sean Corrigan showed his accuracy, also from a free, to leave it one point apiece. Ormsby tagged on two more frees while Maguiresbridge kicked four wides in succession. A point from Rory Porteous on 17 minutes left the minimum between the teams as the game entered the final ten minutes of the first half.
Then, two goals in two minutes from James Duffy gave Irvinestown a huge advantage. The first came after an error in the Maguiresbridge defence. Conor McGuigan fisted the ball to Duffy and he buried it in the net. Maguiresbridge had hardly time to compose themselves when the second goal came. A long ball in rebounded off the crossbar and Duffy was quickest to react, giving Irvinestown a seven point lead.
Maguiresbridge responded with a point from Matthew Teague but it was Irvinestown who finished the half stronger with Duffy and Conor McGuigan adding points, to leave the score 0-03 to 2-05 at the break.
In the second half, Maguiresbridge made some changes, Ciaran Corrigan was moved onto James Duffy to try and nullify his influence, Emmett Rice was introduced at wing half back which helped and John Duffy had to be replaced after he took a knock to the head in the first half. Odhran Russell was his replacement and he helped out in defence and closed the space that Irvinestown were finding so readily.
Maguiresbridge completely dominated the scoring for the first 20 minutes with Danny Teague, Sean Corrigan and Andrew Breslin adding points. With 43 minutes played the home side got a goal. A direct ball in from Niall Carson found Sean Corrigan in space, he beat his man, turned and unleashed a shot into the top corner of the net to leave only a point between the sides.
Two more points in a matter of minutes from Danny Teague and Sean Corrigan (free) put Maguiresbridge in the front.
With ten minutes left the teams traded scores, Duffy, Ormsby and Joey Millar tagged on Irvinestown’s three points of the second half while Niall Carson and Rory Porteous
ensured Maguiresbridge got a share of the spoils. With the game in injury time Ormsby had a chance to win it from a free but the angle was very acute and his effort sailed wide.
Overall both teams will concede a draw was the fairest result. Maguiresbridge Manager Niall Jackman said:
“It was a tale of two halves. Irvinestown are a very good footballing team and with Shane Goan they are very creative around the middle. We wanted to stop that creativity and in the first half we didn’t do that. In the second, we were much tighter and forced turnovers.
“We went man for man marking for the kick-out and had a bit more belief and better application. Irvinestown at home was a game we would have been looking to win but when you leave yourself with eight points to catch up on it is difficult and we’d have to be fairly satisfied with the draw.”
For Maguiresbridge, Niall Carson in midfield and Mark Gavin at wing half back had excellent games while Irvinestown’s best performances came from Ronan Ormsby and Liam Murphy in attack with Ciaran McGoldrick solid in defence. Maguiresbridge Irvinestown