Newry City back on track following late McGovern equaliser away to Crusaders

Newry took points off one of the Premiership’s top six sides for the first time this season, after a late John McGovern goal at Seaview on Saturday afternoon.

The hosts took a 1-0 lead into half-time, following a goal from Jordan Forsythe, but Newry didn’t back down and were the better side after half-time.

The visitors came into the game as huge underdogs following a poor run of form, and having gone behind they would have been expected to leave north Belfast empty-handed. But, after Adam Salley missed a headed chance, and Liam Bagnall shot just wide, Newry got their rewards on 89 minutes, when Crusaders goalkeeper Jonny Tuffey parried an Adam Carroll shot into the path of McGovern, and he tapped the ball into the empty net, scoring his first goal since March in the process.

“I felt that with our second performance, on the balance of play and the balance of chances, we thoroughly deserved the equalising goal,” Newry boss Gary Boyle told the club’s media channel post match.

“We felt as though there was maybe a slight vulnerability with them [Crusaders] given their results of late, and we wanted to get after them, and although I felt that we should have equalised sooner, I’m absolutely delighted that we did.”

Newry will be hoping to carry the momentum from this result into next Friday’s huge fixture at home to Ballymena United, who they are level with on 11 points at the bottom of the Premiership table. Ballymena also earned a great result on Saturday, as they held reigning champions Larne to a 0-0 draw.

For the full match report and build-up to Friday’s fixture, see next week’s Newry Reporter – in shops Wednesday December 6!