Santos pipped by Harps but they secure Beacom

Strathroy continued their unbeaten start to the season with a hard fought 1-0 win over Enniskillen Santos on Saturday. 
The title hopefuls had to withstand a late barrage from Santos as the Enniskillen side looked to cancel out Darren Teague’s first half strike, but Harps held on to move to the top of the early league table.
Santos manager Joe Keenan was very impressed with Harps in the early stages, but was left to rue several missed chances in the second half that could have helped them snatch at least a point. “It was a game of two halves,” he said. “They were very, very good in the first half. They passed it around well and although our keeper didn’t have a lot to do, they did have a lot of goal mouth incidents that could have turned into goals. That was as good as I have seen them in a while. It was all in Strathroy in the first half, but we got to grips with them in the second half and to be honest I thought we just shaded it. I felt if we had scored we could have won it, but I couldn’t fault anybody for their performance or their effort, especially second half. On another day we could have got a point and maybe we just about deserved one for our second half performance, but we could have been two or three down at half time.”
From the first whistle Strathroy were pressing forward in search of an early goal and they thought they had the breakthrough following a goalmouth scramble, but the referee deemed the ball had not crossed the line before it was hacked clear by the Santos defence.
Harps continued to dominate possession and once again were denied by a goal line clearance, this time Francis Hynds lifting the ball over the crossbar with the keeper beaten.
On a rare Santos attack Jason Farry found Dwayne Beacom but his shot was off target, and just when it looked as though Santos would reach half time on level terms Harps finally got the goal their dominance deserved when Darren Teague controlled a cross and fired through the legs of the keeper.
After the interval Santos came out like a different team and created two great opportunities to draw level. Craig Johnston was put through one on one with the keeper but his shot came of the body of the net minder, and when a similar situation arose minutes later. The striker’s shot drifted narrowly wide of the post.
Despite not adding any points to their league total manager Keenan admits he is happy with their start to the campaign, with their hopes further boosted by the signing of former Ballinamallard midfielder Cathal Beacom. “I am very happy with the way things are going so far because at the start of the season I didn’t expect it to be as good,” admitted Joe. “I am thrilled to get Cathal in because everyone was trying to hunt him down. It’s a big, big signing for us, probably the biggest I have ever made in the Fermanagh and Western. He didn’t play on Saturday and if we had him in the centre of the park we might have won the game because we were lacking that little bit of quality that they had. He is injured at the moment but his debut could come against Town in three weeks.”