Matches between these 2 teams are always feisty, but their encounter last Saturday went past this with at times the teams more interested in the opposing player rather than the ball. Both teams rarely change over the years and most players remember previous encounters and it takes a strong referee to ensure that they concentrate on the football, unfortunately Saturday’s referee let too many players get away with poor tackles early on and the frustration built during the match and erupted in the final 5 minutes of the match.

The first half have saw Killymoon play with the wind and should have taken the lead early on when William Montgomery got on the end of a ball across the visitors’ penalty area but somehow managed to scoop the ball over the crossbar from 5 yards with the goal at his mercy. It wasn’t however one way traffic and Fivemiletown were left wondering how they didn’t take the lead from a corner when Gareth Maguire made a point blank save from an opposition player who found himself free 8 yards from goal but his header was turned over the crossbar by an excellent save from the Killymoon stopper. With little decent football being played the game was littered with fouls that went unpunished, but the first booking was given for a challenge that didn’t even make contact on a player. In keeping with the scrappy nature of the game it took a mistake to break the deadlock on 20 minutes. There didn’t look to be any danger when a long ball was played to the edge of the Fivemiltown penalty area, but confusion between the keeper and his defender ended with the ball being headed over the Fivemiletown number one by his own player into the net. The lead only lasted for about 5 minutes when Killymoon failed to pick up their players again from a corner and after a brief scramble near the home goal the ball was poked in for the equaliser. The rest of the half produced plenty of fouls but very little chances for either side.

Killymoon brought on Steven McElhatton at the start of the second half to try and get their passing game going but it was the visitors who started stronger and again Killymoon couldn’t deal with high balls into the penalty area and Fivemiletown were unlucky to see 2 headers come back off the crossbar and cleared to safety. Killymoon did improve in the second half and found space on numerous occasions down the right side with Montgomery, but they were unable to make the chances count. Martin Bogan had a chance to re-store the lead but his first touch let him down when it looked like that he was in on the keeper. The referee eventually found his yellow card and started to take action, but tempers were now rising when every challenge was made and a number of the visitors were fortunate that earlier persistent fouls had gone unpunished. Tempers were also rising in the dugouts with each team having a member of their coaching team sent from the sidelines. With only 5 minutes remaining Killymoon looked to have snatched all 3 points when Patrick McElhatton made a brilliant reverse pass to release Warren Smith, who looked to have overrun the ball before getting his toe to the ball before the keeper and put the ball into the net through the keeper’s legs. An incident immediately after the goal between 2 opposing players continued when the match re-started and when the referee eventually realised something was wrong a melee had begun with a number of players and before the referee could re-store some sort of order most of the players and many of the team officials had got involved. The stoppage didn’t help Killymoon as they seemed to lose concentration and instead of killing the game they found themselves man on man at the back and a cross from the left was flicked into the net from 10 yards, giving Maguire no chance in the home goal.

A draw was probably the correct result, but Killymoon will be disappointed not to have won the game after taking the lead so late in the game, but credit to Fivemiletown who never give up until the final whistle.

Joint manager Mark Wilson was disappointed with the result, but was also very critical of some of the referees this season. He said ‘Too many referees this season talk about not wanting to send off players, but by not taking action early on, when poor challenges are made, can backfire later in the game as players start getting frustrated by being continually fouled and end up retaliating. This match is always fiercely contested and difficult to referee and needs the man in the middle to take control early on to keep the lid on the match. Saying this no-one can condone some of the incidents that happened during the match.’

One bright point for Killymoon was the return of Brian Mulligan who did cause the visitors plenty of problems when he came on from the bench.

TEAM: Gareth Maguire, Nigel Purvis, Adrian Ferson, Gareth McFarland, David McMullan, Stephen Purvis, Marc Stewart, Patrick McElhatton, Warren Smith, Martin Bogan, William Montgomery Subs: 12. Steven McElhatton, 13. Francisco Gomes, 14. Brian Mulligan