Last-gasp Irish League draw reward drama as Limavady ‘just kept believing more than anything’
One week on from injury-time heartbreak, Limavady United manager Paul Owens was celebrating a last-gasp equaliser on Saturday to secure a share of the spoils at Carrick Rangers.
Life on the big stage following promotion as Championship champions has provided Limavady with something of a roller-coaster ride confirmed by a weekend point off Joe Crowe’s own goal in the closing moments to cancel out a Paul Heatley opener for Carrick.
That 1-1 draw Owens could only call “crazy” offered Limavady a road reward with the previous weekend’s away-day pain against Glentoran still so fresh in the memory.
"We picked a team today for basically the venue that we're at and what we thought we might face down here," said Owens on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sportsound following a game played against the backdrop of Storm Boelo. “We know how difficult it is and, in fairness, with the conditions coming up the road and the wipers going 100 miles an hour we actually feared what it was going to look like...but the pitch and everything is in really good shape here.
"The first 15 minutes we were really good and then from 15 to 25 minutes we were architects of our own downfall.
"Late in the game we brought on boys who tried to maybe stay on the ball and we finished the game really, really strongly.
"I said to the staff that I was feeling we were going to get a goal and very, very fortunate circumstances late on but part of me thinks that we probably deserved a wee bit of luck.
"To keep going and limit them...I just kept believing more than anything."
CARRICK RANGERS: Nathan Gartside, Kym Nelson, Jordan Forsythe, Jimmy Callacher, Danny Gibson, Adam Lecky, Aidan Steele, Benjamin Buchanan-Rolleston, Joe Crowe, Paul Heatley, Seanan Clucas. Subs: Dylan Agnew, Daire O'Connor, Luke McCullough, Joe Moore, Kyle Cherry, Caleb Hawthorne, Mason Carlisle.
LIMAVADY UNITED: Martin Gallagher, Stephen O'Donnell, Philip Lowry, Stephen Lowry, Tiarnan Boorman, Kieran Farren, John Butcher, Ruairi Boorman, Danny Lafferty, Ronan Wilson, Jamie McGonigle. Subs: Fintan Doherty, Aaron Jarvis, Oisin Duffy, Lewis Tosh, Alfie Gaston, Leon Boyd, Luke Fleming.