SLIDESHOW: Newcastle West and Abbeyfeale share spoils in Limerick Desmond League opener

THE wind was a spoiler when Abbeyfeale United and Newcastle West Town kicked off their season with a 1-1 draw in the Limerick Desmond League Premier Division at Riverside Park last Sunday morning.

The opening fifteen minutes were evenly contested but, despite playing against the wind, Abbeyfeale had established a foothold when they opened the scoring in the 23rd minute.

Full-back Liam Collins made a surging run along the left flank and the move culminated in centre-forward Jamie O’Connor laying the ball back to midfleder Dylan Quirke, who applied a glorious, unstoppable finish from 19 yards.

That was the highlight of a very solid performance by Qurike, who, along with his central midfield partner, Fiachra Cotter, helped Abbeyfeale to achieve dominance in the middle of the park for much of the first-half.

As was the case in the first-half, the wind proved to be of no benefit to the team playing with it in the second-half and Newcastle West looked the more threatening side, coming agonisingly close in the 75th minute when Seoirse Joyce struck the crossbar with a carefully-considered strike 17 yards.

Their spirited efforts deserved an equaliser and it came in the 87th minute from the penalty spot. Noel Callanan was brought down and Joyce capitalised with a textbook conversion into the bottom left-hand corner.