Inishowen League are back in the Oscar Traynor Trophy quarter-finals after an excellent away win over the Defence Forces on Saturday.
Defence Forces 0 Inishowen 2
Played on a difficult astro pitch surface in Newbridge Town, Inishowen laid the foundations for this win with an excellent first half display.
But all that could have changed in the opening minutes when with the Inishowen defence appealing for offside Tony Smith ran through but his low effort was turned away by Dillon Doherty at full stretch.
The home side continued to make the running and Diarmuid Long headed well over from a right wing cross.
Inishowen settled and good work on the right between Brendan McLaughlin and Matthew Henry saw the latter advance into the area but his effort was deflected behind.
In another good move Henry had another chance unmarked at the edge of the area but he curled his effort high and over the bar.
After a good flowing move Inishowen gained a corner on 18 minutes and Kieran McDaid’s deep delivery was headed down and across Ronan O’Reilly to the bottom corner by John G McLaughlin.
Inishowen had another great chance when the ball broke to Henry at point blank range but he fired wide .
The defence forces were always dangerous on the break and Doherty had to be alert to turn a good effort from Long behind for a corner.
On the half hour a quick throw in on the left by McDaid found Terence Doherty who returned the ball to the Buncrana man and he played a superb one two with Matthew Byrne, who had made seventy yards to the the edge of the area, for McDaid to advance into the area and slip the ball past the stranded O’Reilly for a goal of real quality.
Inishowen continued to press and John G McLaughlin got on the end of another corner but his header and eventual scramble was ultimately cleared by the home side with difficulty.
The Defence Forces almost got a goal back when a superb defence splitting past sent Long through the middle but keeper Doherty advanced to clear with his feet.
nishowen responded and on the stroke of half time Terence Doherty, who led the line superbly all day, broke clear and as he attempted to round O’Reilly was blatantly taken down by the keeper with a free kick and only a yellow card awarded.
From the free McDaid’s thunderous driven effort crashed off the post and away.
The Defence Forces changed their shape to a three-four-three on the restart and pushed Inishowen back without creating many clear chances.
Inishowen had a great chance to kill the game off when a brilliant break by McDaid on the right saw his shot well saved by O’Reilly before another break by McDaid saw his driven cross just elude the inrushing McLaughlin at the back post.
Midway through the half Sean Poutch’s superb cross from the right found substitute Derek Walsh coming in at the back post but he hit the side netting.
Walsh then had a twenty yards effort well saved by Dillon Doherty on 81 minutes. Inishowen broke with John G McLaughlin flicking on a corner to Terence Doherty who hooked it over O’Reilly and into the side netting.
The home side then were awarded a free kick from twenty yards and Craig Short was unlucky to see his effort crash off the inside of the post before being cleared.
Overall a hard but deserved victory sees Inishowen advance to the quarter finals away to Kilkenny.
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