LIFFORD let another glorious chance to claim three points slip through the fingers in the Maloney Hardware CDSL Premier Division with Aaron Shinners securing a draw for Shannon Town Utd in the final quarter of Sunday’s league tie.
Shannon Town Utd 2
Lifford AFC 2
Venue: Lynch Park, Shannon
Both sides find themselves in the bottom half of the table and their focus will be on avoiding relegation as opposed to lifting silverware this season.
A sharing of points sees Lifford drop to second from bottom, above Kilrush Rangers who have a game in hand. Ennis’ oldest club have played their full complement of games to date, only they and Ennis Dons have seven league games under their belt.
Now lying in sixth position, Shannon Town can draw level with Dons if they maximise full points in their extra game and this needs to be the focus for David Hogan’s charges.
Having been unlucky not to salvage a draw with Avenue Utd a fortnight ago, the disappointment of falling to defeat when a draw was merited is evident. After losing to Kilrush Rangers last weekend, they coughed up the chance to bounce back and more importantly overtake Shannon Town and Fair Green Celtic in the table.
Nathan Phelan’s side controlled matters in the opening half, they played the better football and manufactured well worked moves with a composure on the ball. However, their second half saw them lose their concentration and discipline, picking up two yellow cards and getting involved in needless skirmishes.
Arguably symptomatic of the past two setbacks, Lifford travelled to Shannon with the bare eleven while Phelan togged out as a substitute. Offering a much-needed boost was the return of Ikem Ugwueru to their ranks, Éire Óg’s defeat in the Munster SFC leaves the window open to the Clare footballer to play some soccer for only a couple of weeks before he links up with Paul Madden’s county set-up.
Ugwueru brought physicality, fitness and aggression to the Lifford side and he even struck for the first goal of the game on fifty five minutes when calmly slotting to Kyle McInerney’s net.
By half time, Lifford should have been four goals in front but crucially didn’t go ahead despite their positive play.
Charlie Morrison should have put the hosts in front much earlier but he missed a penalty with fourteen minutes on the clock. He made up for this later In the game, when getting the first equaliser of the morning on fifty eight minutes as Lifford failed to maintain their lead.
Within five minutes, the visitors were back in front. Midfielder Messiah Chirwa who has been one of the standout players for Lifford this season had the assist and Bradley Higgins finished to the net to give Phelan’s side the lead once again.
From a set piece, Shannon Town got back on par once again. Left-back Aaron Shinners got on the ball at the near post and struck to the net on seventy five minutes to give Shannon Town a valuable draw and once again denting the spirits of Lifford.
Shannon Town Utd: Kyle McInerney; Cody Waller, Steven Carrroll, Brian Monaghan, Aaron Shinners, Ben O’Neill, Jamie Doyle, Cian Johnson, Kieran Hackett, Eoghan Gough, Charlie Morrison.
Subs: Luke Keating for Doyle (55), Seán Aylmer for Johnson (55), James Fahy for Hackett (70), Charlie Curran for O’Neill (70), J Setkowicz for Morrison (80).
Lifford AFC: Luke Kennedy, Eoin Monaghan, Kieran Doyle, Chibby Okoye, Hocine Bensadok; Chuka Obadeyi, Messiah Chirwa, Cain Guilfoyle, Ikem Ugwueru, Bradley Higgins, Joseph Chukwuemeka.
Referee: Michael Rock
Gallery of photographs by Joe Buckley
