LMC District League round-up

Drumkill Rovers saw their push for the Premier Division title receive a major jolt on Sunday last when they suffered a shock 1-2 defeat to hosts Inniskeen Spartans at Oriel Park. In confirming their place in the top six teams ahead of the forthcoming "split", Inniskeen played some of their best football of the season to deservedly take the spoils. Drumkill can have no complaints though in experiencing only their second defeat of the campaign as they failed to hit top gear at any stage of the match. Bernard McSkeane was the hero for the Spartans with his two goals sandwiching an equaliser (83rd min) scored for Rovers by schoolboy David McEntee. However McSkeane broke Rovers" hearts by following up his 25th strike with the winner three minutes from the final whistle. Elsewhere in the top flight, Clones Town also nabbed a top six spot despite being held to a 1-1 draw by visitors United LT. United needed to secure both points on offer to net a top six berth but it wasn"t to be thanks to a 75th minute equaliser for Clones by Kevin Dowds. There was much more drama on offer in the League Cup though where hosts Cootehill Harps recorded an astonishing 8-4 win over Cavan United at the former"s Clara Lane ground with Cavan GAA star Keith Fannin helping himself to four goals. Ironically, the game started off at a pedestrian pace with Cootehill going one-nil ahead via a Liam Henshaw strike only for a Sean Reilly brace and one from Gordon Clarke to steer United into a 3-1 lead. However thanks in part to a fine strike from Fannin the Harps recovered to draw level at three goals apiece at the interval. A neat Kristof Injanva goal just six minutes into the second half edged Cavan back into the lead but once Lloyd Cochrane and Fannin goaled within the next ten minutes, an air of inevitability wafted its way over proceedings. Cootehill remained on the frontfoot and when Fannin completed his hat-trick and Cochrane bagged his second, the only issue to be decided was the margin of victory. Meanwhile in the Andy Capaldi Cup, Carrick Rovers edged out FC Svytury"s by just 1-0 in a claustrophobic first round encounter. Stalemate was the order of the day for the major part of the contest and Darren McGlone"s 35th minute goal came from one of the very few strikes on target by either party. Sadly, sportsmanship wasn"t of the highest order over the course of the 90 minutes-plus with three players being dismissed for double yellow card offences with Rovers shorn of one of their number. In the only other game played last weekend, Monaghan Town advanced to the semi-finals of the Andy Capaldi Cup with a facile 7-1 win over Slieve Beagh. Town hit the ground running with David Loughran taking just 34 seconds to open his team"s account. The county town side laboured though to consolidate their whirlwind start and it wasn"t until just before half-time that they doubled their lead through David Ballintine. The highlight of the second half action witnessed a hat-trick from the in-form George Bolton who nabbed his first goal on the hour mark. It was Bolton"s third hat-trick in consecutive matches.