Enniskillen Athletic 1Castlederg United 1

Enniskillen Athletic played out a 1-1 with Castlederg United in Division One at the Lakeland Forum on Saturday afternoon.

Conor Love’s first-half strike was cancelled out by Jamie Finlay’s equaliser with just over ten minutes to go. The draw leaves both sides just above Magheraveely at the foot of the table with Athletic a point behind Castlederg and a game in hand over Saturday’s visitors.

Athletic manager Darren Rodgers was disappointed to see his side come away with just a point having led for the majority of the game.

“Disappointed with the result in the end, we played pretty well overall, to be fair.

“But, we just didn’t take our chances, especially in the first half. We really should have been two or three up at that stage.

“We hit the woodwork twice and had two chances cleared off the line by their defenders.

“Castlederg hung in there and eventually got on level terms. They could have had another one but for good goalkeeping. Bryan Owens and Ciarán Flaherty both played very well for us for their first games of the season.”

After an even opening 15 minutes, Conor Love broke the deadlock as he picked the ball in a wide position and went to put a cross into the box but instead, it gathered pace and looped over Castlederg goalkeeper Dylan Nicholas and into the far corner of the net for 1-0.

Athletic threatened shortly after with chances as their best opportunity fell for Conor McAloon who headed the ball off the post from a corner. United’s centre-back partnership James Harpur and James Stewart stayed strong in defence and the visitors cleared the ball off the line in two separate Athletic attacks as the Enniskillen side pushed to double their advantage before half time but failed to do so.

United failed to create any clear-cut chances themselves as they went into the break a goal down.

Love almost made it 2-0 when the game got back underway but the woodwork again denied Athletic from getting a second.

Castlederg slowly crept back into it and created a couple of golden opportunities but fine goalkeeping from Athletic’s Darragh Burke kept them from equalising.

As the clock ticked towards 80 minutes, a run into the box ended with the ball being pulled back for Jamie Finlay to slot home for 1-1. Castlederg grew in confidence after the goal and looked most likely to grab a winner, but the home side held on with both sides taking a point.