Letterkenny Rovers celebrate after Darren McElwaine’s penalty. Pic by Northwest Newspix.
Letterkenny Rovers are the toast of the Donegal soccer fraternity this evening after a fabulous 2-1 win over Dublin kingpins Killester.
The win sends them into the FAI Intermediate Cup semi finals for the first time since 2004 after a riproaring tie played on a lush Leckview surface on Sunday afternoon.
Ultimately it was a 76th minute penalty by Darren McElwaine which settled the tie but as was the case in the last couple of ties Rovers didnt make things easy for themselves in the closing stages.
Killester twice came close in the opening stages when Dylan O’Driscoll forced Rory Kelly into a good stop while ace marksman David Laceys header was well wide when he really ought to have hit the target.
Rovers played with an intensity that was a joy to watch and deservedly took the lead on 24 minutes when Christy Conaghan hit a superb goal after showing some initial great ball skill to control a Darren McElwaine header and he easily beat visiting goalkeeper Evan Whelan.
From then on Rovers completely controlled the first half and Terence Shields will have been disappointed not to have converted at least one of two good chances.
Rovers were completely dominating affairs in the first half playing their best football of the season and with David Shovlin playing in a more natural position and he and Mark Forker were ruling the roost
The Dublin side though were always going to come out with all guns blazing and started to boss proceedings although Rovers twice came close through the very lively Shovlin and McElwaine while Lacey came close for Killester who were also causing problems through the cultured left foot of centre half Fran Matthews.
Rovers were always lively on the break with Paul McVeigh in excellent form and he brought a good save from Evan Whelan before winning a penalty on 76 minutes when he was brought down by a combination of two defenders.
Up stepped Darren McElwiane and he cooly slotted home.
That should have been Rovers home and hosed but Killester got one back through a deflected Eoin Mooney effort on 83 minutes and they did lay siege to the Rovers goal but couldnt get the equaliser they so badly craved.
A great boost for the Letterkeny men and a great advert for the League and it promises to be an exciting March for Eamon McConigleys men.
Letterkenny Rovers: Rory Kelly, Ryan Lonergan, Conal McGonagle, Jonathan Minnock, Paul Yank Boyle, Terence Shiels (Kevin McGrath ’71), Paul McVeigh, Christy Connaghan, Darren McElwaine (Steve Okakpu-Emeka ‘80), Mark Forker, David Shovlin.
Killester United: Evan Whelan, Darren Kavanagh, Philip Hand (Owen Mooney ’69), Michael Kelly, Adam McCormick, Stephen Browning (Mark Ryan ’75), Stephen Chambers, Peter O’Reilly, David Lacey (Alan Talbot ’71), Fran Matthews, Dillon O’Driscoll.
Referee: Terence Moyne.
