Ronan Coughlan’s last-minute penalty denied Finn Harps a first League win of the season tonight.
Sligo Rovers 1 Finn Harps 1
Sean Boyd’s first-half header had Harps in front and, seemingly, on their way to a rare win, only for them to be dashed at the death.
The draw does, at least, end a losing sequence that had reached a club record tenth game on Monday, but there was no doubt that Coughlan’s goal came as a dagger to Harps’ hearts.
Daniel O’Reilly was adjudged by referee Ben Connolly to have fouled Coughlan. O’Reilly was given his marching orders, via a second yellow card, and Coughlan fired the penalty beyond Harps ‘keeper Peter Burke to earn a point.
Harps had led from the 42nd minute when Boyd – on loan from Shamrock Rovers – got on the end of a John Kavanagh cross to head past Mitchell Beeney.
Earlier, O’Reilly headed at Beeney from a cross by Mark Russell, while Tony McNamee and Caolan McAleer had chances for the visitors.
Harps belied their standing as the Premier Division’s bottom side in the first half and the goal was a deserved one for Ollie Horgan’s side.
They didn’t have it all their own way and Ronan Murray fired wide for the hosts.
Harps included Mark Anthony McGinley as their substitute goalkeeper tonight.
Sligo thought they had levelled when Romeo Parkes had the ball in the net, but the celebrations were cut short by an offside flag.
Soon after, Ballybofey man Johnny Dunleavy was thwarted by Burke and, at the other end, Beeney saved from McAleer.
Burke denied Parkes and Harps looked to have done enough – but they were undone in the final moments.
Sligo Rovers: Mitchell Beeney, Johnny Dunleavy, Dante Leverock, John Mahon, Lewis Banks, Sam Warde (Kris Twardek, 76), David Cawley, Niall Morahan (Daryl Fordyce, 55), Ronan Murray (Regan Donelon, 46), Ronan Coughlan, Romeo Parkes.
Finn Harps: Peter Burke, John Kavanagh, Sam Todd, Niall Logue, Daniel O’Reilly, Mark Russell (Keith Cowan, 67), Mark Coyle, Raffaele Cretaro (Nathan Boyle, 71), Tony McNamee (Jacob Borg, 83), Caolan McAleer, Sean Boyd.
Referee: Ben Connolly.
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