Finn Harps came within four minutes of reaching the FAI Cup semi-final when they were held to a draw by Drogheda United at Finn Park last night.
Kevin McHugh gave Harps a shock lead.
Kevin McHugh gave the home side a surprise 1-0 first half lead but Peter Hutton’s side were unable to hold out to the final whistle, despite playing against 10 men for the most of the second half following the sending off of United’s Ciaran Coll.
Veteran Harps striker McHugh struck on 22 minutes when, after a neat one-two with Thomas McMonagle, he dispatched a sublime curling effort past Schlingermann from the edge of the area.
It very nearly got worse for the visitors when, two minutes later, Coll raced through one-on-one with Schlingermann but the 22-year-old keeper did well to maintain the one-goal deficit.
The 56th minute dismissal of Coll spurred the visitors on and Harps put in a herculean defensive effort to withstand wave after wave of Drogheda pressure and looked to have sealed their passage to the semi-final before Daly popped up unmarked in the 86th minute to smash home Cassidy’s teasing ball across the face of goal.
Daly will miss next Monday night’s replay at Hunky Dory Park through suspension. The game will be played to a finish with extra-time and penalties if necessary.
During their warm-up before last night’s game, the visitors sported white t-shirts with the number ten on the back as a tribute to team-mate Gary O’Neill who was diagnosed with testicular cancer earlier this week.
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