Tierney's goal stuns FAI Cup holders

A 36th MINUTE strike from Mike Tierney helped Mervue United towards a surprise draw against a much-fancied Sporting Fingal side in an entertaining, hard-fought FAI Cup contest at the Morton Stadium, Santry last Friday evening.

The game began in scrappy fashion as Mervue set about containing what is, on paper, a dangerous Fingal front three. Tom French's charges did start off quite brightly, but the home side soon got into their groove, and had their first real opportunity on ten minutes when striker Eamon Zayed found space in the box to shoot, but his effort deflected off a defender and away for a corner.

The former Bray star got it right just four minutes later though, as he slotted home from close range following an enticing cross by Conan Byrne on the right. On the run of play, this lead was no more than Liam Buckley's men deserved, and they very nearly doubled their advantage on 19 minutes when Byrne burst through on goal, but Mervue's Under 19 International goalkeeper Ger Hanley denied him with a stunning stop.

At this point, it looked like there was only going to be one winner from this game, but Mervue started to grow in confidence, and were beginning to cause their top tier opponents a number of problems. There was a slight claim for a Mervue penalty with 27 minutes gone as Shaun Maher appeared to handle a Pat Hoban cross, but nothing was given.

It was clear the Galway men were up for the challenge now, however, and they were back on level terms nine minutes before the break when Fingal 'goalie Brendan Clarke flapped at a corner, and had to look on in agony as midfielder Tierney coolly slotted low to the net from an Enda Curran pull back.

This did Mervue's confidence a world of good, but represented a huge setback for Fingal, and things would get worse for the North Dublin outfit as Maher was shown a straight red card for an apparent two-footed lunge on goal hero Tierney just five minutes later.

It looked somewhat debatable as to whether Maher deserved to be sent-off, but that was the decision of match referee Declan Hanney, and it meant that Mervue would go into the second period with an extra man, and a live chance of causing an upset come full-time.

The pressure was now on the cup holders to produce the goods and, to be fair to Fingal, they didn't look like they were playing with ten men in the early stages after the break. Indeed, they very nearly regained the lead after 54 minutes when Hanley dropped a Ger O'Brien rightwing cross, but the excellent Kevin Crehan was on hand to block Alan Kirby's six-yard shot.

Mervue, in turn, weren't creating as many openings as they would possibly have liked, but they were defending extremely well, and they weren't giving anything away too easily in the midfield sector either.

As the game entered into the final half-hour, Fingal looked to their bench for some inspiration, as Shane McFaul replaced the ineffective Dawson on the right-side, while Mervue introduced some fresh legs in the form of Kenny Farrell and Evan Connolly, with Darren Young and Enda Curran making way.

As the minutes went by, there was plenty of hard-work and endeavour from both sets of players, but there was little in the way of clearcut chances, as a draw was beginning to look like the probable outcome from this encounter.

Unsurprisingly, this was the way it turned out in the end, and even though Zayed and Tierney both went close to winning it for their respective sides, both managers had to be content with a draw coming away from this game.

After a recent good spell of form, which has seen them beating Athlone Town and Finn Harps in the league, this result showed just what Mervue are capable of and they won’t be intimidated wither when they welcome Fingal to Terryland Park for the replay.