Letterkenny Rovers narrowly lost out in a seven-goal contest against Strand Rovers at Leckview Park on a dry but cool Saturday afternoon in the Glencar Inn Saturday Division One.
Rovers threatened early through Filip Duraj and Ryan Callaghan, but Strand opened the scoring after 19 minutes when Mark Brennan skilfully flicked a right-wing cross into the net. The hosts responded in the 28th minute, Cory Oliver finishing after Callaghan delivered from the right.
Strand came close to restoring their lead when Daniel McClafferty made a save during a scramble which also saw the visitors strike the crossbar before Rovers cleared. Instead, Letterkenny went ahead five minutes before the break. With advantage played following a foul on TJ McMorrow, Artem Luzhetskyi unleashed a superb strike from around 30 yards on the right, sending the ball high across goal into the roof of the net.
Strand drew level within 30 seconds of the restart with a long-range effort over McClafferty by Conor Brennan, before a well-struck free-kick from Jordan Saville in the 57th minute put the visitors 3–2 ahead.
Rovers continued to create openings, with Luzhetskyi and Noah Casburn firing narrowly wide and substitute Dualtach McCauley finding the side-netting. Their pressure brought an equaliser in the 72nd minute when Duraj was brought down inside the area and Alex McDevitt converted the resulting penalty.
McClafferty then did well to tip a dangerous Strand free-kick over the bar, but the visitors struck the decisive goal in the 83rd minute. A long clearance from their goalkeeper bounced inside the Rovers box and was flicked over McClafferty into the net by Conor Brennan.
Luzhetskyi sent a late effort wide as Letterkenny searched for another equaliser, but Strand held on to take the points from a tightly contested encounter.
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