Desertmartin travelled to Moneymore on Sunday evening to face an unbeaten side that are sitting pretty at the top of the intermediate league, on a roasting evening the game promised to be an entertaining clash. The reserve team got the day off to a great start for the ‘Martins when they absolutely demolished a very poor Moneymore side by a handsome margin, but it was the senior game that had a lot more importance. The match started at a slow pace with both teams becoming engaged in a scrappy battle for possession, after some good work from Danny Murray and Brendan Higgins the first point of the game was slotted over by Enda McGuckin. Moneymore then conceded a soft free kick just outside the 21metre line which was again converted by Enda McGuckin. The game struggled to come to life for long periods and after Moneymore managed to bring themselves back level both sides seem to take a breather. Desertmartin then went ahead again after a brilliant 35metre effort from full back Paddy McCann split the posts on his weaker left foot. Donal Murray then pointed his first score of the match from a free kick to leave Desertmartin leading by 2 at the break after a very low scoring first half. After the restart things didn’t seem to get much better in terms of scores, but Desertmartin began dominating around midfield with JP Higgins and Danny Murray taking turns to catch kick-outs and feed off each other’s breaking ball. The delivery into the forward line of both sides was woeful and this resulted in both defences getting the upper hand and providing an exhibition of awful football. Desertmartin kicked several wides in quick succession during a 15 minute spell when they really should have been pushing on and putting this game to bed, these would come back to haunt the ‘Martins in the latter stages of the match. Moneymore ate into the Desertmartin lead by converting a simple free before a very soft penalty decision let the home side move into the lead for the first time in the match when it was hammered into the back of the net. JP Higgins received a yellow card for what the referee judged as a violent reaction to what was certainly a blatant foul on the midfielder. Donal Murray then stroked over a 13metre free kick to leave just one point between the teams with 10minutes remaining. Even though Desertmartin were creating numerous chances to notch up a considerable score line, wide after wide followed and questions could be asked of the forwards when they failed to convert several easy chances. Some solid defending by the half back line was going to waste when the ball wasn’t going over the bar at the opposite end. Cahir Madden and Connor Monaghan were attacking well from defence but the killer instinct was still badly missing up front. Eventually Desertmartin won a free kick and Donal Murray struck over a fine score from 30metres to level the scores again for the last time in the contest. Moneymore, in a rare attacking spell, moved up the field and fired over two points in a row to leave Moneymore winners with a score line of 1:05 to 0:06. Desertmartin will hope to bounce back from this defeat next week against Limavady when they host them at Longfield.
Man of the match: Cahir Madden
Desertmartin team and scorers:
Brian McElhennon, Shane O’ Neill, Paddy McCann (0:01), Connor Monaghan, Cahir Madden, Mark Madden, Gregory McGovern, JP Higgins, Danny Murray, Declan Murray, Cormac McGuckin, Paul McGovern, Donal Murray (0:03), Enda McGuckin (0:02), Brendan Higgins
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