Rovers 4 Drumbar 3

Letterkenny Rovers made it successive wins defeating a highly fancied Drumbar side 4-3 in a madcappingly entertaining encounter at Leckvew Park on Wednesday evening.

The tone was set from the start when Drumbar took the lead after just two minutes when the influential Robbie Murphy pounced to fire home low to the bottom corner.

Rovers responded well and took the game to their visitors playing a neat brand of football led by the highly industrious and effective Luke Parke and after a couple of chances drew level on 16 minutes when Parke converted a free kick after he initially won the free after a quality run.

The home side then took the lead on 36 minutes when Oisin Duffys cross shot from the left came off the post and the alert Aaron Temple was there to tap home from close range.

Murphy almost equalised straight away but blasted over when well placed and that looked very big when Rovers went up the field and extended their advantage when Faolan Gibson netted with a cool finish when the Drumbar defence failed to deal with a teasing Sam Harvey cross.

Rovers were in a strong position at the break but that advantage was snuffed by the 58th minute when Murphy netted with a rasping left footed strike on 48 and a delicatel dinked lob on 58 although Harvey had struck the post for Rovers in between.

Harvey though was not to be denied as he put Rovers ahead on 61 when running onto a pinpoint Parke throughball to fire past Conor Gilespie in the Drumbar goal.

Drumbar though in fairness threw everything forward in search of an equaliser and came close on a number of occasions through Murphy and Ruairi McLaughlin while Rovers were under extra pressure in the final five minutes plus a lengthy injury time period following the sending off of Caolan Plumb for what was a deemed a last man tackle.

Drumabr hit the woodwork in the dying stages but referee Dessie McLaughlins fulltime whistle signalled a good win for the home side and heartache for Drumbar.