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.
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