Jamie Watson strikes late for Finn Harps as spoils split in Wexford

Jamie Watson's 94th-minute goal handed Finn Harps a dramatic point against Wexford at Ferrycarrig Park.

Wexford 1 Finn Harps 1 

Wexford, just two points behind fourth-placed Athlone Town, were out to maintain their winning run so as to consolidate their fifth-place promotion play-off spot, having gone eight games undefeated in both league and Cup.

This was in stark contrast to struggling Finn Harps, second from bottom, and finding it hard to put a winning run together to lift them up the table going into the final sequence of games.

With time running out on both sides, and each needing points for different reasons,  one could see a real urgency to their play from the opening minutes.

Wexford's young side had taken time earlier in the league, but they looked determined to build on their recent run of success with some quality attacking play as they tried to stretch the visitors’ back four.

Following some early pressure, which was absorbed by the opposition, it was Finn Harps who created the first real chance of the game when, following some excellent approach play Patrick Ferry, he pulled his left-footed attempt from the edge of the area just outside the right post.

But the home side gradually played their way back into the game only to be denied by visiting keeper Rory Kelly who saved excellently from a Kian Corbally effort.

Both sides were struggling to create anything worthwhile out of midfield with the result being the front players were starved of quality ball.

Midway through the half, the home side forced two successive corners, both of which were dealt with capably by the visitors, while at the opposite end a Ryan Flood corner was headed wide by Jamie Watson who should at least found the target. So it was no surprise to see the sides go in 0-0 at the interval.

Neither side could create a real chance through the opening 20 minutes of the second half before the breakthrough finally arrived after 68  minutes.

Aaron Dobbs worked himself into a scoreable position but his attempt was blocked out into the path of Darragh Levingston who fired a powerful 25-metre effort to the net making it 1-0.

Three minutes later Harps were dealt a further blow when Ryan Rainey was red-carded leaving them with a real uphill battle.

Wexford seemed content to protect their slender lead but Harps, despite their numerical disadvantage, forced a late corner which saw Watson bundle the ball over the line to split the spoils.

Wexford FC: Owen Mason; Darragh Levingston, Ethan Boyle, Luke Lovic (Corban Piper, 45), Luke Browne, James Crawford  Kian Corbally (Eoin Kenny, 83), Reece Webb, Cian O'Malley, Aaron Dobbs  Thomas Oluwa.

Finn Harps: Rory Kelly; Noe Baba  Ryan Flood, Seamus Keogh, Stephen Doherty (Daniel Stokie, 83), Caoimhin Porter, Ryan Rainey, Tony McNamee  Patrick Ferry, Jamie Watson  Max Hutchinson.

Referee: Jason Moore.