Sporting Fingal 3-3 Shamrock Rovers

Fans were treated to a six goal thriller at Morton Stadium as a late Ronan Finn goal secured a point for Sporting Fingal against Shamrock Rovers.

Fingal had the first real chance of the contest when Lorcan Fitzgerald buzzed down the left and whipped in a perfect ball to the returning Gary O’Neill who had his effort blocked. Eamon Zayed followed up the loose ball but Aidan Price deflected his effort over the bar for a corner.

Shane McFaul then came even closer on nine minutes when his shot from twenty yards struck the cross bar.

Fingal were taking control of the game and opened the scoring when Conan Byrne whipped in a ball which Zayed headed past Alan Mannus with eleven minutes gone.

Gary Twigg then put Darren Quigley under pressure when he tried to latch onto Stewarts deflected shot but the Fingal shot stopper punched clear.

James Chambers then went for a speculative effort from thirty yards which Quigley looked to have covered as it whisked past his near post.

Liam Buckley’s side remained in control throughout the first half with Rovers failing to put Fingal’s defence under any real pressure.

Rovers did break the Fingal back four on 34 minutes as Craig Sives volleyed James Chambers’ corner past Quigley to draw the side’s level.

Byrne then looked to restore Fingal’s lead but his shot went straight into the arms of Mannus.
Fitzgerald was looking menacing and he stole the ball from Sives inside the Rovers penalty area only for the defender to get back and force a corner.

The hosts regained the lead five minutes past the resumption following a neat passage of play between Finn and McFaul which led to Finn working Mannus with a shot from distance. Mannus could only spill the effort into the path of O’Neill who chipped home from the rebound.

Twigg then latched onto a long ball from Enda Stevens but O’Brien recovered superbly and forced a corner which Rovers failed to make anything of.

Zayed should have grabbed a third for Fingal when he ran onto a neat flick from O’Neill but his shot was just wide of the mark with just the keeper to beat

Michael O’Neill emptied the bench in an effort to salvage at least a draw from the game.

Gary Twigg gave his manager the goal he craved after he pounced on a poor pass from Byrne and slotted the ball past Quigley to level the game once more with sixteen minutes left on the clock.

Fingal retreated further and on 81 minutes Rovers took the lead for the first time when Stephen Rice fired past Quigley much to the delight of the travelling support.

The hosts came right back and Kenny Browne flicked an Alan Kirby free kick into the path of Gen Crowe whose header failed to trouble Mannus.

Ronan Finn then drew Fingal level on 87 minutes when his long range effort was fumbled into his own net by Mannus.

And in stoppage time Browne had a glorious chance to give his side all three points as he put Ger O’Brien’s free-kick over from inside the six yard box.

Sporting Fingal: Quigley; O'Brien, Browne, Williams, Fitzgerald; Kirby (Dawson 87), McFaul, Finn; Byrne (Gannon 83), O'Neill (Crowe 61), Zayed.

Shamrock Rovers: Mannus; Sives, Price, Murray, Stevens; Kavanagh, Chambers (Rice 55), Bayly (Bradley 69), Turner; Twigg, Stewart (Dennehy h/t).

Referee: Anthony Buttimer (Cork)

Attendance: 1433.