Shamrock Rovers missed out on the chance of moving into third place in the Premier Division table when held to a draw by a battling Finn Harps in a six goal thriller at Morton Stadium. The Hoops did manage to salvage a point with a dramatic injury time equaliser from central defender Richie Purdy. Harps took full advantage of two disastrous second half blunders by Rovers keeper Tony O’Dowd.

Remarkably O’Dowd was not wearing a cap playing into the blinding sun and was made to pay the penalty in full when both Jonathan Minnock and Paddy McGrenaghan were on target with long range efforts that completely fooled the keeper. “It was only today that I learned that Tony doesn’t wear a cap in these situations and that’s not acceptable,” said Hoops boss Damien Richardson. “We had about nine scoring chances while Harps had four shots and scored three goals”.

Unhappy Harps player manager Gavin Dykes was angry that his team had conceded all three goals from set piece positions. “We are scoring goals and that’s great with ten in two matches. The Donegal men grabbed the lead after 23 minutes when James Mulligan was able to beat the off side trap, out pace Purdy and shoot home past the advancing O’Dowd from the edge of the box. Marc Kenny free on the right seconds before the interval enabled Frances to steer the ball home from close range for his eighth goal of the season.

The Hoops looked to be on the way to victory when a Kenny corner on the left four minutes into the second half enabled Brian Byrne to force the ball over the line at the second attempt. But Harps refused to lie down and aided by O’Dowd blunders were level on the hour.

Minnock first shot home a free kick from 22 yards which the keeper saw late and could only manage to finger tip the ball onto the bar and behind into the net. The folly of not wearing a cap in the blinding sunlight was further exposed when a snap shot from Paddy McGrenaghan from 20 yards completely deceived O’Dowd who had ventured off his line. But it was Purdy who was to have the final say in time added on for injuries when running 20 yards to head into the roof of the net following a Kenny cross from the left.
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