McClurg on target as Carrick draw with title-chasing Omagh

Led by their Player of the Match, Katie Houston, Carrick Ladies almost returned home to base with all three points but, in the end, they had to settle for a point in Saturday’s hard-fought Senior Two fixture.

Having lost at home to their opponents earlier in the season, and with the County Tyrone outfit currently experiencing a punishing run of form, Carrick fully expected a difficult day.

And right from the opening whistle, Omagh certainly did everything in their power to deliver on this expectation.

But, as the home side pushed forward in numbers looking for an early strike, Carrick dug in strongly across their defensive line and gradually weathered the early storm.

The Carrick midfield steadily began to match their opponents across the pitch and midway into the first-half it was the visitors who opened the scoring when Lyndsey McClurg expertly slid home a penalty-corner play.

In the second half, Omagh again applied extreme pressure on their opponents and were rewarded with a series of penalty-corners which Carrick did well to resist until late into the match.

But eventually, with something like a dozen short corners already thwarted, a deflection off a defender’s stick proved just too much for Carrick as Omagh equalised.

With only five points now separating the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-placed teams in Senior Two, and with only four matches remaining, Saturday’s point at Omagh could yet prove invaluable.

Sixth-placed Carrick are continuing their determined effort to bury the ghost of last year’s near disastrous league campaign and re-establish themselves in the top half of Senior Two.