A seventh goal of the season for Success Edogun helped Finn Harps, who played over an hour with ten men, earn a point against UCD at Finn Park on Thursday evening.
Finn Harps…1 UCD…1
By Stuart Connolly at Finn Park
Jake Doyle netted the opener a few minutes prior to halftime, as Sean O’Donnell was dismissed with 25 minutes on the clock.
But Edogun cancelled that out as he popped up in the early stages of the second half to secure a point as Harps head into the mid-season break in fifth place with 30 points on the board.
A moment of silence was observed prior to kick-off for Donegal Football Stalwart, Dessie Kelly. The Letterkenny Native, who was known to many as Mr. Football, sadly passed away on Thursday afternoon.
Darren Murphy made three changes to his starting lineup, with Sean O’Donnell and Aaron McLaughlin in for Patrick Ferry and David Cawley. There was also a change in between the sticks as Tim-Oliver Heimer replaced Conor Walsh, and his penalty area was the busier of the two in the early stages.
Noe Baba was in the right place to block a goal-bound shot from Danu Kinsella-Bishop inside five minutes, while Heimer was able to catch Luke O’Regan’s shot with ease a few moments later.
At the other end, Harps broke free, with Tony McNamee able to find Success Edogun, but with a lot of ground to make up, his run was well scanned by Éanna Clancy, and the defender made a textbook block to thwart the forward.
Five minutes before the half-hour mark, the hosts found themselves down to ten men. Sean O’Donnell was initially clipped by Adam Verdon as he approached the penalty area, and as the decision went against the Harps youngster, his retaliation ended with the student on the deck, and referee Alan Patchell didn’t hesitate to show a red card.
One less player on the field appeared to slow the game down, similar to when these sides met back in April, but a few minutes shy of halftime, UCD capitalised on the extra space. Jake Doyle was able to shrug off the presence of Luke O’Brien in the area and rifle the ball beyond the grasp of Heimer. He almost repeated the feat a few minutes later, but this effort flashed narrowly wide.
Into the second half, Finn Harps brought their game to another level, and within ten minutes, they were back on equal terms. Ryan Rainey’s forward pass was deftly hit by Aaron McLaughlin into the path of Success Edogun, and from a narrow angle, the striker was able to finish for his seventh goal of the campaign.
Tony McNamee almost added to his tally on the hour but drilled his effort into the gloves of Kian Moore, while Heimer was called upon to thwart a shot from Kinsella-Bishop a few minutes later.
Éanna Clancy, who bagged a brace last week and helped extend UCD’s unbeaten run to seven games, was almost the match winner again, but a fierce strike from inside the box fizzed past the post with Heimer rooted to the spot.
With just moments of stoppage time left, Heimer was called into action, and made a big save with his outstretched foot to deny Jake Doyle.
Finn Harps: Tim-Oliver Heimer; Jamie Watson, Matthew Makinson, Noe Baba, Luke O’Brien; Ryan Rainey, Stephen Doherty(Max Johnston 80), Tony McNamee, Sean O’Donnell, Aaron McLaughlin(Patrick Ferry 61); Success Edogun(David Cawley 90).
UCD: Kian Moore; Alex Dunne, Éanna Clancy, Niall Holohan, Luke O’Regan; Michael McCullagh, Ronan Finn(Hugh Parker 14), Adam Verdon; Danu Kinsella-Bishop(Colin Bolton 80), Michael Raggett(Stephen Mohan 80), Jake Doyle.
Referee: Alan Patchell
